Wildflowers: Spring in Anza-Borrego

Field of flowers, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in the mountains
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in the Mountains

May 7, 2009 – There are fields of flowers to be seen in the mountains, where a seemingly out-of-place Anza-Borrego Desert State Park wraps around Lake Cuyamaca. Passing motorists stop along Highway 79 to admire these flowers. Hikers set out from trailheads along the Sunrise Highway (County Road S-1) to get close to the flowers that don't grow in vast colonies but which are spectacular just the same.

At the Sunrise Trailhead (Sunrise Highway, mile 34), we found fields of Fiddleneck. Crossing the road and taking the trail to the Pacific Crest Trail (which is only a quarter of a mile away and not 3 miles as the sign says), we saw plants from the Chamaesyce and Cryptantha genera (both genera are well represented in the desert), transition zone plants like Mountain Mahogany and Scarlet Bugler, and mountain plants like San Diego Sweet Pea (Lathyryus vestitus) and fragrant Lilac (Ceanothus, some blue, some white), among many others. Some blossoms had already passed their peak, but many more hadn't gotten started yet.

Closeup of a beetle on a yellow flower, California Riding and Hiking Trail Down the hill at the Pedro Fages historical marker, we could have parked and followed the California Riding and Hiking Trail toward the desert, but we chose to go the other way for a nice bird's eye-view of the yellow, white, and delicate blue flowers on the flat land once covered by Lake Cuyamaca. (Photo above.)

This is an easy hillside trail with plenty of wildflowers and some strategically placed shade trees (good to know about on a hot day). We found Phacelia distans growing beneath Mountain Mahogany (which still had some golden blossoms). We enjoyed the fragrance of the Ceanothus. We saw pollinating insects doing their pollinating. Good birding, too.

Meanwhile, a reader in the San Felipe Valley tells us: "The Froebell's Four o'Clocks are having a banner year along Hwy. 78 through the San Felipe Valley. And the Buckwheats, Eriogonum fasciculatum var. foliolosum and its desert cousin var. polifolium grow cheek by jowl here at the ranch, sometimes literally right next to each other. "

Closeup of the pink flower of a Froebell's Four O'Clock May 3, 2008 – The colorful annuals associated with Anza-Borrego's spring wildflowers have moved into the mountains to the west. To see them now, go to the Jasper Trail, for example. The colorful Froebell's Four O'clock is just starting to bloom under the plants of the high desert and chaparral transition zone.

Froebell's Four O'clock, also known as Giant Four O'clock, is a Nyctaginaceae, a member of the Four O'clocks, the same family as Sand Verbena and Wishbone Bush. The low-growing pink flowers of Sand Verbena are among the first flowers of spring to adorn the floor of the Borrego Valley. The Wishbone Bush, sometimes with white flowers and sometimes with pink flowers but always with bright green leaves, appeared extensively throughout Anza-Borrego this year. The Latin name for Froebell's Four O'clock is Mirabilis multiflora, and you can expect to see a multitude of flowers should you encounter this subshrub with a spreading growth habit.

Elsewhere, the Ocotillo continues to bloom nicely beside County Road S-2 in the southern desert, as does the Creosote Bush and Buckwheat. Desert Agave shows signs of being about to blossom in Mason Valley and Blair Valley.

Closeup of the pink and white flowers of Desert-Willow
Desert-Willow, Chilopsis linearis ssp. arcuata, Coyote Creek