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The lower desert areas of the state seem to be setting up for a nice wildflower season

If these weekly to bi-monthly rains keep up we might see something mid January if not sooner

Wildflower Observations
28 Day Wildflower Report Map

Spent the past weekend in Cochise County and returning home the flowers appeared at their best on AZ 77. San Pedro river basin also appeared greener North of Mammoth. Thought I could avoid the crowds at the Renaissance and visit Bisbee. Wrong, Bisbee was quite busy. Did attend author JA Jance presentation in Benson, it was excellent.

Anyone have any beta on the flowers in the lower Pusch Ridge, south face region? I go for the granite, but I stay for the AEG and enjoy the flowers. Mostly, I just stop and smell them.

changed the thread title over to 2013 again (a couple posts were lost last week in the data loss fiasco)

hopefully something blooms soon
cheatgrass is popping up in photos, which may be a bad sign as it robs nutrients, moisture and sunlight

I saw brittlebush blooming (rather crappily) in the parking lot for East Wing Mountain today...hardly seems encouraging.

If we are to have much happen in the flower arena, the rain is really going to have to increase quickly. It has already been getting too warm for most winter annuals to germinate well.
Seems it is going to be another really short spring like last year was.

As has been said before, if you want more flowers than grasses, you have to get a lot of rain Oct-Dec. If you get all the rain in the spring it doesn't create those vast masses of poppies, etc.

As confirmation of that, this AZCentral article says more rain early is important. It will be interesting to see how this season's later rain affects the flowers. We should know in the next couple of weeks. A little warm weather is probably all we need to get prime blooming.

http://www.azcentral.com/travel/article ... owers.html

Have seen a few scattered bunches of poppies across the desert near Hwy 87 on the way to Payson. Hard to tell how many as the sun is setting so they are closed up...

Out on US 60 I have noted the following blooming already: owl clover, desert marigold, poppies, lupine and brittlebush.

Lupines are lining the Beeline along from Gilbert Rd to Shea Blvd. Will look on the way home tonight across the fields between Shea and Four Peaks road.. leaving early to catch the moon and the comet...most days I can sort of see the poppies but by the time we are going home they are closed so hard to see them as well.

The southern flanks of Silly Mountain that parallel US 60 are loaded with blooming Brittlebush. It's awesome to hike along the trails and the air smells so fragrant too.

Been hitting the backside of Shaw Butte and North Mountain on training hikes this week and some of the hills are covered with these purple flowers. Not much of a botanist so don't know what plant it is. It was enough of a draw to get some people I know out of the house to walk around for an hour.

While it may be happening just a little bit too late, I wonder if some rain this weekend will combine with the wet autumn to spur an explosion of desert wildflowers in the next 2-3 weeks?

@chumley
I wouldn't be surprised, but I'd be very happy.

We were driving in from California yesterday on I-10 and the fields of Globemallow spanning acres was unlike anything we've ever seen.
They were between the Salome Rd. and the Hovatter Rd. on both sides of the freeway. More on the south side though.
Sorry no pics, no camera.

Alston Neal wrote: Sorry no pics, no camera.

[-X

If we get rain I expected to see a lot of flowers blooming when a few days of the rain.

SpiderLegs wrote:Been hitting the backside of Shaw Butte and North Mountain on training hikes this week and some of the hills are covered with these purple flowers. Not much of a botanist so don't know what plant it is. It was enough of a draw to get some people I know out of the house to walk around for an hour.

Owl Clover?
http://www.delange.org/OwlClover/OwlClover.htm

Anyone seeing large spreads of wildflowers in Southern Arizona yet? If so, whereabouts...?

Alston Neal wrote:We were driving in from California yesterday on I-10 and the fields of Globemallow spanning acres was unlike anything we've ever seen.
They were between the Salome Rd. and the Hovatter Rd. on both sides of the freeway. More on the south side though.
Sorry no pics, no camera.

Where are Salome and Hovatter Roads?
Thanks,
Jerry