Outdoors: Ingredients for another ‘false spring’ bloom are in place

If you follow the seasons, autumn is about endings.

Spring is about hope.

For those who love the desert, it’s those first raindrops of winter that bring hope for spring wildflowers.

The seasonal bloom is a highly anticipated event that happens if enough rain comes at the right time followed by mild spring temperatures and the lack of high winds.

It’s a delicate recipe requiring a perfect mix of ingredients.

Those spring displays can range from spotty clusters of color to an epic superbloom that might happen every five to 10 years when the normally drab desert sands are transformed into a vast carpet of colors.

But sometimes nature likes to turn things upside down like it did three years ago.

Late summer monsoons brought huge amounts of rain to the desert and the final weeks of summer stayed unusually cool.

The result was an unseasonal autumn wildflower display referred to some as a “false spring” bloom.

Temperatures were spring-like, days were shorter and there had been lots of water. All the ingredients needed for flowers to bloom.

October 2022 found areas of the Anza-Borrego Desert painted with thick bunches of yellow goldeneye flowers, carpets of yellow chinchweed and clusters of purple sand verbena sweeping over undulating sand dunes along Highway S-22 heading toward Salton Sea.

It was one of those little secrets that didn’t draw much attention because the winter crowds had yet to return to the desert.

Nature may be turning things upside down again this year.

In the past three weeks there have been significant rain events in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, including last week when the remnants of Tropical Storm Mario brought over 2 inches of rain to some areas of Borrego Springs and the surrounding desert.

The ingredients for another false spring are in place.

Sicco Rood is a Borrego Springs resident, and a close observer of nature as a research coordinator for the University of California Irvine’s Steele/Burnand Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center.

He monitors recording stations in the park and logged rainfall last week ranging from 0.66 inches in Culp Valley to 2.24 inches in Borrego Springs. Rainfall at park headquarters was measured at 1.89 inches.

Much of the rain arrived in a short time, creating rockslides and flash flooding in some areas.

That’s a lot of water, and the thirsty sands of the desert quickly absorbed it.

Rood recalled the rains of 2022 that were remnants of Hurricane Kay.

“Due to the late timing in September, there were fields of flowers in the western parts of the badlands especially and all winter long into the spring. And the funny thing was that hardly anyone knew about it,” Rood said.

Rainfall from that storm was evenly distributed and soaked in rather than running off as flash floods.

There were multiple days of mild, overcast weather and no heat waves afterward, and that helped retain the moisture.

This year’s fall storms are already having impacts.

“Lots of chinchweed coming up on the Glorietta Canyon alluvial fan, and ocotillos have already leafed out from the storm the week earlier,” Rood said. “So, there was a lot of water coming through here, which will very likely mean flowers if there are no more 100-degree heat waves again. And who knows we might get some more rain.”

And while the surprise of a fall bloom likely created the term “false spring,” retired Anza-Borrego State Park Superintendent Mark Jorgensen says there is nothing false about it.

A rare autumn wildflower bloom is simply nature taking advantage of an opportunity.

“The plants and animals that live in arid deserts must be ready when an opportunity arises and cannot pass up a chance to flourish and reproduce when conditions are right,” Jorgensen said.

He does not see the fall wildflower bloom as unusual at all.

“This is the reason desert species still exist,” he said.

Jorgensen pointed out that temperatures, sun angles and the amount of daylight time in late September is identical to the typical wildflower season in March.

“So, our late summer rains are coming at a time that is just perfect for plants to benefit with a growth and bloom cycle,” he said.

Typically, the desert season kicks off in late October when temperatures dip back into more comfortable levels.

But those of us that might be called Desert Rats have learned that just about any season in Anza-Borrego can offer incredible nature encounters.

It might be that rare fall wildflower display, a bighorn sheep coming to a meager waterhole to drink in summer heat, scorpions glowing green in ultraviolet light on a hot summer night, a breathtaking view of the Milky Way, a dazzling meteor shower, or rainbows arching over boulders in Culp Valley as winter rains are blown into the morning desert sun from nearby stormy mountains.

It seems there is always a season of hope here.

Cowan is a freelance columnist. Email ernie@packtrain.com or visit erniesoutdoors.blogspot.com.