Thursday, March 28, 2019

Solving a Mystery

I was looking out the window from our desert house and noticed a peculiar white band at the base of what is called Copper Mountain on the opposite side of the highway. It's probably about 2 miles (as the crow flies). I put the telephoto lens on my camera to get a better view, and this is what I saw.
Any guesses? Snow came to mind, if only for a moment. Much too warm for snow, and why would it be in just this one area? I thought possibly a flower bloom, but dismissed that idea too. Although we are having a spectacular superbloom in the desert right now, the predominant blooms are yellow,  purple or lavender, and orange or gold (not white). So Lilly and I jumped in the Jeep to go check it out.

As strange as it might seem, if you guessed some weird white flower bloom that only occurred in a quarter-mile long band along the base of the mountain, you win the prize!!
As we drove the jeep along this dusty desert road, all of a sudden the white flowers appeared!

A little further up the road, they became even thicker. The soil here is very sandy, and Lilly couldn't resist getting out and exploring the area!

After doing a little research, I'm pretty sure these are called Dune Primrose. The dune in the name makes sense. There are other primrose species, but this one only grows in the sandy dunes or sandy soil areas.

A closeup of the flowers. Beautiful!
It's nice to have a little photo-model to provide perspective. I've seen these primrose flowers before, but never in these numbers!

The Dune Primrose blooms totally dominated the sandy soil areas (hence the "band" of white seen from my house). As you move away from the sand and into rockier soil, other flowers and colors dominated.



Lilly's just a blur, but having fun playing up on the nearby sand dunes! That's Joshua Tree National Park in the background.

So that about wraps up the mystery of the elusive Dune Primrose. Thanks for playing along!!

Linking with Skywatch Friday.

40 comments:

  1. That’s wild that they bloomed in a narrow band. Everything had to come together, soil, temperature, moisture, sunlight to make it happen (i am guessing). I love your inquisitive spirit that made you go check it out.
    Our local billionaire who built the Gathering Place has hired the same International Consultant that did that to come up with a master plan for our Turkey Mountain. They blew me away with their stuff. For one thing they had hired a local geologist to come up with a surface geology map of the area and the head guy said something to the effect of, You do know that ecology is just the interaction of the earth’s surface with its climate. The more I thought about it the more I liked it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Reminds me of a Helleborus niger or Christmas Rose

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's spectacular. I didn't win the prize!

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's almost as if someone planted them.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow! How cool! I never would have guessed a flower bloom. Great pics!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Desert blooms always seem like little miracles to me

    ReplyDelete
  7. Beautiful flowers. Lilly seems to be having a great time.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I guess the super bloom is something extra special. It was on the news here in Finland too. Does it smell good? Nice boots she´s got. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for your comment. I didn't notice much of a smell... just a hint, really.

      Delete
  9. Wow, so beautiful - especially because it's in the desert! These pics are keepers:) And your grand daughter is looking so fashionable now (growing up too quickly!!) Thanks for noticing that diagonal line in the sky on my post:)

    ReplyDelete
  10. A day to remember--- for both of you. I envy you.

    ReplyDelete
  11. What a little rain all can do.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hello, the flowers are lovely. Cute photos of your granddaughter, she looks like she is enjoying the trip to see the flowers. Great series of photos. Happy Friday, enjoy your day. Have a great weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  13. So totally cool.

    Nice for the drought to be over for now.

    Tikes Lilly's age are often blurs, huh

    ReplyDelete
  14. What an interesting discovery! Beautiful flowers!

    ReplyDelete
  15. What a nice surprise to find those beautiful flowers in the desert.
    The photos of Lilly in that sea of white are wonderful.
    Thanks for sharing and enjoy your weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I'm glad you and your able assistant solved that mystery for us. It's amazing that such fragile flowers can thrive in such a harsh environment.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Wow how interesting. Fun to go see what we think we are seeing---LOL
    As soon as I saw the flower I knew it was a type of Oenothera but I like the name Dune Primrose better.
    MB

    ReplyDelete
  18. Mystery bloom solved! It looks like everyone had a great time. The desert sure holds beautiful surprises.

    ReplyDelete
  19. What a lovely find and beautiful floral photography and your little granddaughter is so adorable ! the best treasure!

    Happy Days to you,
    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

    ReplyDelete
  20. We've been reading about that super bloom here in the East.

    ReplyDelete
  21. great that two of you were not lazy and went to check :-)

    ReplyDelete
  22. A wonderful sight of beauty. Glad you had the curious bug to take your assistant out and solve the mystery. :)

    ReplyDelete
  23. Beautiful area you live in and spectacular photos. The Dune Primrose is a gorgeous bloom.

    ReplyDelete
  24. A beautiful conclusion to the mystery. Amazing to see these flowers in the desert.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Hi SP&P, This is such a cool post. I heard about this year's superbloom and for a moment considered flying south just to take a look. Your pics give me a great look and thank you for sharing! Lilly is so sweet! It is just great that you decided to check out the white you saw in the distance. Have a great weekend and thanks for your recent comment on my blog. John

    ReplyDelete
  26. Your colorful little model completely outshines the primrose extravaganza! How long does a superbloom last?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for your comment, Cynthia! Superblooms "peak" for 2-4 weeks (my best guess!) in a specific area. The cool thing about the superbloom in the Joshua Tree area is that the bloom will move up in elevation over time. For the past few weeks it's been at the lowest elevation in the park (around 2000'), but we should have good blooms moving into higher elevation into April.

      Delete
  27. What a beautiful find at the bottom of the mountains. The primoses are very pretty even in white.

    ReplyDelete
  28. That was fun,p. I enjoyed how you developed the story from your first sighting at a distance and on to the closeups with your exploration partner ... and those beautul primroses... what a great year for desert bloom! Wish we were there!

    ReplyDelete
  29. Nature never ceases to surprise us … and how fun that Lilly went along for the ride. I enjoyed reading in the comments above about the superbloom moving up in elevation. I am learning so much!

    ReplyDelete

  30. Such a nice article..Thanks for sharing

    ReplyDelete