Saying that weather has been unusual this year has become a boring conversation starter these days. Everyone knows it. The only thing we don’t know is what’s going to get thrown at next us by mother nature.
One good outcome in our part of the desert Southwest this year was an unusually heavy four-day rain event in January that dropped almost two inches of precipitation. That was followed up by two fairly good soakers, leaving us with precipitation ahead of normal for this time of year.
That apparently helped trigger a desert super bloom of Mexican poppies along the edges of the Organ Mountains in our Chihuahuan desert.
Mexican poppies are cousins of California poppies which also are apparently appearing in a super bloom this year in southern California’s deserts.
I found this online:
“The Mexican poppy (Eschscholzia californica ssp. mexicana) and California poppy (Eschscholzia californica) are closely related, often treated as subspecies, but differ mainly in habitat and appearance.”
California poppies apparently have more orange than the Mexican poppies which are mostly yellow with an orange center. Their blooming cycle appears to be between five to seven years, according to various sources online.
My wife and I had been reading about the poppy bloom on recent online posts so while our daughter was visiting from Austin, we decided to take a trip out along roads bordering the Organs to see for ourselves. The flowers were a bit thin when we first veered off Dripping Springs road to Baylor Pass road, then became more and more frequent as we headed north. We decided to take a quick hike up the Baylor Pass trail, but before we got there, our trip was temporarily interrupted by a pack of javelinas and a lone coyote darting across the road.
Along the trail, the flowers became more and more numerous, causing us to stop frequently and snap photos. Then when we looked back to the northwest, we could see large fields of yellow in a mostly rural neighborhood near the southwest corner of U.S. 70 and Baylor Pass road.
We decided to see if we could get closer and found this:
I’m not sure how much longer the super bloom will last, but if you’re in the area, take the time to go out and see it.
aero-cordero.com 