Even in the most inhospitable places, life finds a way.
Thanks, Jeff Goldblum. In Death Valley, renowned for it's exceptionally hot and dry weather, flowers are blooming.
They are blooming in such large numbers that some of the park's rangers are anticipating the possibility of a 'superbloom'--a once-in-a-decade event that happens when the dry desert receives a decent amount of rain. Wildflower blooms happen every year in the desert, but a deluge in October, followed by brief rain showers have brought these stunning flowers to the desert floor in unusually large numbers.
Not only are some of the flowers blooming in large numbers, this year's flowers are also "super-sized". In a wildflower update by the National Park Service, the author noted:
What is most exciting to me this spring is not necessarily the number of flowers we have blooming early, or the vast number of tiny plants filling in behind them. It is the way some of the plants that have not yet bloomed or are just beginning to bloom, are super-sized. Jack-in-the-Beanstalk stems of Desert Gold (Geraea canescens). Basal rosettes of Gravel Ghost (Atrichoserus platyphylla) that are more than a foot in diameter. Notchleaf Phacelia standing nearly three feet high. Desert Five-Spot (Eremalche rotundifolia) plants with three dozen buds on just one plant. It's mind-boggling.
Watch park ranger Alan Van Valkenburg talk about those brief moments when "the valley of death becomes a valley of life".
To see more gorgeous images of this year's desert flowers, check out the #Superbloom hashtag on Instagram and Twitter where visitors to Death Valley are sharing images of the flowers.
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