Anza-Borrego 2019 Super Bloom

By Kathleen Wong, UC Natural Reserve System

The palette of the Colorado Desert is often subdued—its dun soils, beige sands, and gray rocks are typically enlivened by only a few green creosote bushes or spiny cacti. But this year is an exception. The skies delivered six times more water to San Anza-Borrego State Park during the 2018-19 rainy season than the previous year. The watery bonanza kicked off southern California’s second super bloom in two years, a surprise given that these events occur once a decade on average.

These photographs document the super bloom at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and the Steele/Burnand Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center, an NRS reserve located at the western edge of Borrego Springs. Photos were taken March 14–16, while the bloom was in full swing.

At the edges of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

Anza-Borrego 2019 super bloom 1 — Wildflowers carpeted the desert floor all the way to the hills at the end of DiGiorgio Road. Image credit: Kathleen Wong

Anza-Borrego 2019 super bloom 2 — Desert sand verbena, desert marigold, and chicory carpeted fields at the end of DiGiorgio Road. Image credit: Lobsang Wangdu

Anza-Borrego 2019 super bloom 3 — Desert marigold and purple sand verbena by DiGiorgio Road. Image credit: Lobsang Wangdu

Anza-Borrego 2019 super bloom 4 — Purple phacelia and California evening primrose (white) covered the dunes near Ocotillo Wells. Image credit: Kathleen Wong

Anza-Borrego 2019 super bloom 5 — Swarms of painted lady butterflies sipped nectar from the cornucopia of flowers. Image credit: Lobsang Wangdu

Anza-Borrego 2019 super bloom 6 — Desert lilies (Hesperocallis undulata) flowered as early as December, hinting at a possible super bloom to come.

Palm Canyon Trail, Anza-Borrego State Park

Palm Canyon Trail follows a spring issuing from the hills near the park visitor center to a California fan palm oasis. Flowers flourished beneath boulder crevices, bejeweled washes, and tinted entire canyon slopes.

Anza-Borrego 2019 super bloom 7 — Early morning along Anza-Borrego’s Palm Canyon trail. Image credit: Kathleen Wong

Anza-Borrego super bloom — The California fan palm (Washingtonia filifera) oasis at the end of the Palm Canyon trail in the park boasted a phenomenal array of wildflowers, including yellow brittlebush, purple phacelia, and red chuparosa. Image credit: Lobsang Wangdu

Anza-Borrego 2019 super bloom 8 — Parish’s poppy and Bigelow’s monkeyflower

Anza-Borrego 2019 super bloom 9 — Bigelow’s monkeyflower (pink), Parish’s poppy (yellow), pincushion spp.(white), phacelia (purple) along the Palm Canyon trail. Image credit: Kathleen Wong

Anza-Borrego 2019 super bloom 10 — Closeup of Bigelow’s monkeyflower (Diplacus bigelovii). Image credit: Lobsang Wangdu

Anza-Borrego 2019 super bloom 11 — Phacelia. Image credit: Lobsang Wangdu

Anza-Borrego 2019 super bloom 12 — Desert chicory (white) and phacelia (purple). Image credit: Lobsang Wangdu

Steele/Burnand Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center

Steele/Burnand Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center is located on the site of a former country club at the outskirts of the town of Borrego Springs. In 2011, the building and its adjacent open desert joined UC Natural Reserve System. UC Irvine, which administers the reserve, renovated the club into a field station complete with meeting rooms for classes and lectures, accommodations, and a laboratory. The reserve now hosts nearly a thousand university students, members of the public, and researchers per year. A partnership with Anza-Borrego Desert State Park facilitates research within the 615,000 acres of desert, badlands, mountains and springs of California’s largest state park.