Annual Wildflower Exhibit

Spring Wildflower Exhibit 2019 ~ Friday, April 05 thru Sunday, April 07

Chia, Phacelia, Poppy and Goldfield

With earth-long rainbows and wondrous scents, Indian Wells Valley pledges otherworldly blossoms this spring. Eager spotters are sounding off as the first wildflower sprouts of the year are rearing their heads. Soon hundreds of varieties and colors will bedazzle the region’s every corner. Fortunately, a team of collectors will bring the pomp and glory to us. From April 5th to April 7th, the Maturango Museum will host its annual Wildflower Exhibit. In the Coso Room you can visit with more than 200 wildflower species from over 40 plant families. Exhibit hosts will be present to help guide guests and answer questions.

All’s not pageantry, however. California Native Plant Society’s (CNPS) Nick Jensen will speak at the exhibit on April 6th at 2:00pm. His presentation, “A Botanist Comes Full-Circle: From Studying to Defending California’s Tejon Ranch, California’s Largest Private Landholding,” will delight as magically as do the flowers.

Nick Jensen is the Southern California Conservation Analyst for CNPS. Nick earned his BS degree in Environmental Horticulture at UC Davis, and recently completed his PhD in botany at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden (RSABG)/Claremont Graduate University. As a graduate student Nick produced the first Flora of Tejon Ranch and studied evolutionary patterns in perennial Streptanthus (jewelflowers). From 2006-2010, he was employed by CNPS, first as a Vegetation Program Assistant, and later as the Rare Plant Program Director. Nick has also worked as a botanist for the U.S. Forest Service, Chicago Botanic Garden, and the private consulting industry. He has taught botany classes to professionals and interested members of the public for CNPS, RSABG, the Jepson Herbarium, and Theodore Payne Foundation. As a volunteer he has served on the Rare Plant Program Committee and the board of Southern California Botanists, serving as president in 2015-16. Nick is a fellow of the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation. In his free time, he enjoys cooking, hiking, rock climbing, and photographing wildflowers, activities that are often not mutually exclusive.

The museum held its 37th annual Wildflower Exhibit in April, 2015. It featured wildflowers which were gathered locally from elevations ranging from the desert floor to the foothills. The exhibit was in in the Museum’s new Coso Room! (Drum roll, please.) With all that space, the wildflowers had ample room to show to best advantage.

Spring 2015 was bustin’ out all over with wildflowers blooming at least to mid- elevation range in our surrounding canyons, the Rademacher Hills, and well, everywhere. Wandering in the hills was rewarded with slope after slope covered with Goldfields, large patches of purple Phacelias, and myriad other species from the tiniest belly flowers to robust shrubs. The plants not yet in flower were showing every promise of putting their best petals forward in time for the Wildflower Exhibit.

On Saturday afternoon at 2:30 Naomi Fraga, PHD botanist with Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, presented “Wild About Monkeyflowers – and Other Local Wildflowers“. Naomi, a past presenter of her then Master’s program on wildflowers in the Owens Peak drainage, assuredly once again delighted the audience with beautiful photos and fascinating information.

The Desert Artists’ League added to visitors’ enjoyment by demonstrating wildflower sketching/painting ‘in situ’ and displaying their work during the exhibit. Microscopes will be available to view the amazing intricacies of the plant world.
Free for Maturango Museum members; $2 admission for visiting adults; free for 18 years and younger.

If the Calendar could speak and if it could sense the atmosphere at this mid-February writing, it would say “It is way too early to be making predictions about the wildflower bloom in April.” Of one thing we can all be certain, the Maturango Museum always has a wildflower show. Secondly, even in the past driest years we’ve been pleasantly surprised at the results and visitors were glad they came.

There will be something blooming somewhere in our large collecting area. Most likely at higher elevations where cooler temperatures and moisture lingering in protected microclimates prevail. A few flowers recently were noted in one of our Sierra canyons and some creosote bushes are blooming now in the Valley. We can count on perennial shrubs having the advantage of deeper root systems blooming by April.

With or without all of us joining together in a rain dance, and more than a month for possible rain to occur, experience has taught us to anticipate an enjoyable and educational Wildflower Exhibit. In the meantime, we encourage everyone to stay posted via the Museum’s Emails and Facebook.

flowers magnified Coming soon to the Maturango Museum is the Annual Spring Wildflower Exhibit, Friday-Sunday, April 8 – 10, 10 to 5 p.m. It is a valued tradition beginning years ago on the Base and continuing in its present location since 1986! The event exhibits wildflowers collected with a special BLM Permit from within a fifty mile radius of the Indian Wells Valley. Visitors coming from throughout California and beyond, as well as our own community, will find a gallery full of beautiful blooms, possibly more than two hundred different species. Each will be identified by its common and scientific name and exhibited within its plant family classification.

With the variable weather we’ve experienced this year and the timing of rainfalls, we are finding that the greater occurrence of flowers is in the higher elevations of our collecting areas. At mid-elevations wildflowers are succeeding in protected spots of retained moisture. A lesson learned, in any given year’s conditions, is that our trained volunteers with their knowledge of where to look always bring in a wonderful variety of plants.

A special presentation by Kathy LaShure, “Day Tripping with California Wildflowers,” will take place on Saturday, April 9 at 2:30 p.m. Kathy is a highly talented wildflower photographer and informative presenter. A long time active member of the California Native Plant Society, she also has become a dedicated participant on the Museum’s Wildflower Exhibit Coordinating Team. Her program will feature more than forty places within reach for a day’s outing, along with road types, vehicle recommendations, and walking or hiking distances. Not only that, the audience can all be transported that very day by the wonderful pictures without even leaving their chairs! Throughout the weekend visitors also can enjoy the pleasure of observing Desert Artists’ League representatives creating sketches and watercolors from chosen wildflowers in the display.

During this time of celebrating wildflowers, the opportunity for free excursions, approximately three hours long, is offered by the Museum. Led by Janet Westbrook to the best flower places on both Saturday and Sunday, April 9 and 10, interested participants should plan to meet at the Museum Parking Lot at 10:15 a.m. Good dirt roads will be explored – no need for 4×4 vehicles.

Post your wildflower photos to the Ridgecrest Desert Wildflowers Facebook page.

WHERE: ½ day trips to local area for flowers during the Wildflower Show weekend with naturalist Janet Westbrook.

COST: FREE

Details: During Museum’s Annual Wildflower Show the museum will host a FREE field trip to find flowers along the Aqueduct Road from Walker Pass to Short Canyon Graded dirt roads. This trip will be OK for any vehicle with clearance. Bring water, cameras, snacks, and appropriate clothing /shoes.

Photos from previous Wildflower Exhibits

2016 Wildflower Excursion ~ April 9th – 10th

WHERE: To local wildflowers.

When: During the Annual Wildflower Exhibit Weekend. Saturday and Sunday, April 9th and 10th.

Details: uring this time of celebrating wildflowers, the opportunity for free excursions, approximately three hours long, is offered by the Museum. Led by Janet Westbrook to the best flower places on both Saturday and Sunday, April 9 and 10, interested participants should plan to meet at the Museum Parking Lot at 10:15 a.m. Good dirt roads will be explored – no need for 4×4 vehicles.

Above Photos courtesy of Kathy LaShure

The mission of the Maturango Museum is to preserve, interpret, and develop an appreciation for the natural and cultural history of the Northern Mojave Desert through research and education in the natural and physical sciences, and to promote the arts.

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100 East Las Flores Ave
Ridgecrest, CA 93555
760-375-6900 | FAX 760-375-0479
Open Daily 10 am to 5 pm
(Excluding Major Holiday)

The Maturango Museum is a Death Valley Tourist Center and Northern Mojave Visitors Center