Children’s Hour: “Wildflowers”

See an impressive array of wildflowers all in one location.

I hope you have had the opportunity to venture outside and see the wildflowers blooming in the Rademacher Hills, Short Canyon, and other areas. As of February 25, many wildflowers are blooming. It’s a different year for wildflowers due to the wet fall and winter, above-average temperatures in December and January, followed by more rain and freezing temperatures in February. Early in December, many plants took the opportunity to grow, bloom, and produce seeds while the weather permitted. It was a gamble, but many plants have succeeded in doing just that.

The Lacy Phacelia wildflowers are flourishing in the Rademacher Hills. Go to the end of College Heights Blvd, park in the dirt parking lot, open your car door, and take in the sweet aroma of Lacy Phacelia. This plant is growing in profusion in and around the creosote bushes. In some areas, plants are reaching two feet tall! This appears to be Lacy Phacelia’s year to dominate the landscape in the Rademachers. The related phacelia, Yellow Throats or Fremont’s Phacelia, is soaking in the sun on the south sides of creosote bushes in the Rademachers.

Brown-eyed primroses are also prominent in the Rademachers and just about every other place I’ve looked. Chia is another plant that is growing and thriving everywhere. The bright yellow Coreopsis is creating bright spots of vibrant color, and the small yellow goldfields are starting to give small areas of a hillside a tinge of yellow.

The wildflowers are here and will continue to grow, bloom, and seed. We expect a wonderful variety of wildflowers for the exhibit weekend.

We will have three presentations over the Wildflower Exhibit weekend:

Friday, April 10, at 5:30 pm, Glenn Harris (provide info) will give a presentation on “Why Plants Grow Where They Do.” Glenn, a retired BLM employee, now volunteers with the Maturango Museum, giving environmental education talks to children and adults.

Saturday, April 11, at 2 pm, Allison Autry, PhD candidate, studies orchids that grow on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada and riparian enclaves on the Mojave Desert. Her presentation is titled, “An Introduction to the Native Orchids of California and Nevada, with a special focus on the Southeastern Sierra and the Mojave Desert.” Did you know that orchids grow in the eastern Sierra Nevada and the Mojave Desert?

Sunday, April 12, at 2 pm, Dylan Layfield will give a presentation on the Wildflowers That Grow in Sand Canyon. This eastern Sierra Nevada canyon is located north of Grapevine Canyon. Dylan has studied the wildflowers of this canyon for many years. Dylan works at China Lake.