California’s superblooms this year are so lush and so exuberant that they can be seen from space.
Satellite images from Maxar Technologies, a Colorado-based company, show striking images of bright orange, red, yellow and purple blooms across southern California.
The vast, vibrant blooms are a sign of abundance after a prolonged drought, which was broken by historic snow and rainfall this winter. Wildflower seeds that accumulated underground through a series of punishingly dry years are finally coming up, UC Davis plant sciences professor Jennifer Funk explained in a news release. “A very wet year – like the year we are having now – could trigger germination of all of these seeds at once, leading to a superbloom.”
The sudden transformation of dry, brown grasslands and deserts into multicolored marvels usually attracts throngs of tourists. Conservationists have warned visitors to tread carefully and stick to trails to avoid trampling fragile flowers. The blooms are also likely to attract pollinators including native bees, hummingbirds and butterflies.
“In general, people are quick to dismiss deserts as wastelands,” said Cameron Barrows, an associate research ecologist at UC Riverside’s Center for Conservation Biology, in a press release. “The truth is that deserts are teeming with a biodiversity … Wildflower years such as this one give folks an opportunity to challenge those misconceptions.”
