Hi Greg:
> Apparently this year has been very good for them in terms of rainfall so
> there are a lot of unusual desert flowers out that only show up less
> than once a decade.
This would be annuals which exhibit that behavior, although some drought
adapted perennials forego flowering in all but ideal years (like Agave). The
annual bloom in the lower elevations is well over with. (Ulf caught the
southern peak bloom in March). There has been scant rainfall since winter.
There are very limited areas with pinyon-juniper and coniferous trees which
will have a summer annual bloom.
IMHO, there are better examples of such higher elevation types elsewhere,
unless one is specifically searching to photography the few high elevation
endemics of Death Valley and is willing to hike some distance from the ends of
roads (like the western slope of the Panamint Range). One is much better off
in the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area (SMNRA), between Las Vegas
and Death Valley, for photographing endemic flora. The SMNRA is an "Island in
the Sky" ecosystem with 13 endemic plants and 3 endemic animals, plus 11
regionally endemic species, especially butterflies. The high elevation
habitats are much more photogenic in the SMNRA, although I love Death Valley
for the lower elevation habitats and spectacular geology! One has to be
willing to watch for snakes in the springs and seeps to catch low elevation
summer blooming of endemics in Death Valley. Better to walk the boardwalks at
Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge - between the SMNRA and Death Valley.
Gary Reese
Las Vegas, NV
Co-author: "Plant Community Classification of the Spring Mountains National
Recreation Area, Clark and Nye Counties, Nevada"
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