Blooms in the Mojave National Preserve

I promised a read-out of my camping trip to the Mojave National Preserve -- I have not gotten around to summarizing the trip yet.  But I can say that the Preserve should be seeing some nice wildflower blooms this weekend or next.  When I was there the ground was green and there were fields of yellow and purple, but many of the cactus and other blooms had not peaked.  Here are shots of some of the flowers I photographed during the trip, weekend of March 26.

Not sure what species are in the first picture below, but they were a brilliant, almost neon color that stand out near the lava flows in the western portion of the preserve.  Second photograph I believe is Indian Paintbrush near Cima Dome.  The third were very tiny white flowers blanketing parts of the ground near Granite Hills.  If you did not scrutinize the ground you could miss them entirely.  Fourth photo of some white flowers in a shrub.  The fifth photo was actually taken at the Ivanpah site -- to me it almost looks like the Barstow Woolly Sunflower, but I know there are other types of desert sunflower and I'm not a botanist!  So if you have any ideas, feel free to post a comment.

Comments

  1. MorongobillApril 3, 2010 at 8:21 PM

    When I was at the future site of Ivanpah3 last week, I saw a tiny plant that looked like the one in picture#5 but it hadn't bloomed. What a nice flower and btw, great job on the photos.

    Looking forward to the camping trip article!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousApril 4, 2010 at 7:43 AM

    I think the top one is Bigelow's monkeyflower (Mimulus bigelvei). The bottom yellow one is Wallace's woolly daisy (Eriophyllum wallacei). Those little white flowers always stump me, but that might be Comb-bur (Pectocarya) -- it was forming green lawns at Calico! Iv'e never seen so much. I don't know the shrub. Nice!

    Laura Cunningham

    ReplyDelete
  3. Shaun G.April 4, 2010 at 12:28 PM

    thanks Bill...the flowers are so small sometimes you have to practically lay down to appreciate them. Thanks Laura for the identifications! I'm actually kind of excited that I have a picture and actually saw a Bigelow's Monkeyflower!

    ReplyDelete

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