Many people, local and out-of-towners, have been commenting on our yellow hills. Dan Danbom sent me this photo of the phenomena today. It depicts the event beautifully.
I noted this “event” on my way home the other night, and slowed enough to identify four flowers that are contributing to this spectacular show, but there might be others. Currently in bloom are native sticky monkey flower, a native tansy, the padre-introduced mustard, and a amaranth-type flower that I have seen, but don’t know if it is native or not. Whatever the flowers, the show is outstanding right now. Enjoy!
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Kate:
The yellow I've been seeing in profusion lately over around The Indians is Deer Weed (Lotus scoparius).
I bet there are a lot of artists where you live, Kate! How can they not be drawn to all the different colors on land, in water and sky?
Nice Kate. Thanks for the info, was wondering what flowers were landscaping our mountains with beauty.
Pam
I've witnessed this too, over the last few weeks. I am assuming this "bloom" has something to do with recovering foliage from the fires last year. It's just a wild guess, but in all my years here I've never seen this. It is gorgeous, but I'd be interested in learning more about it.
I have some close-up photos of the flower at the heart of this phenomena which I will be posting in the next few days, with identification. While it seems to be a bit more prolific in the Basin Fire burn areas, it is also quite a show this year outside of the burn area. So, while the clearing away of other plants may have provided a foundation, I also suspect that this winter's exceptional rains helped produce this show. In the 26 years I have lived here, I don't remember seeing anything like this.