For tens of thousands of years, the fields of California have experienced the superbloom phenomena in which miles of floral cocoons appear and cover all the most hidden corners of the southwest of the USA. These superblooms have been subjected to big volumes of winter rains, and it is believed that 2023 could be one of the best years to look at the botanic alchemy of the region.
What Is a Superbloom?
The traditional American towns have been celebrating for centuries the massive superbloom in the fields of chia, lilies of the desert, tar, sunflowers, and other flowers that year by year flood the fields of California and the southwest of the states. Later, the population from the old continent arrived at the corner of the Earth’s globe and they were shocked by the floral clouds that covered the blanket of hills that transformed into visual poetry. “Fields so green as covered of flowers that touch the same sea waters,’’ wrote the Spanish settler Juan Bautista de Anza in 1774.
It’s known that between tens of miles of years, the invernal rains have boosted the massive growth of flowers in the region of the southwest of the states. The fields turned into botanic oceans had managed to preserve even after the settlers arrived in that region, and in fact still possible to see them even in the regions further to the town.
In this region, invernal rainstorms are very common, so because of that after spring begins, the superbloom arises revealing millions of colorful flowers. The forest rangers from the national parks from the region explain that it is not required just one rain for the bloom, so it’s part of a process in which constantly the rain prepares the scenario of massive superblooms. The fresh temperature during the night and the huge amount of seeds sprinkled in nature are also basic ingredients for botanic alchemy.
2023 Superbloom
These days the superblooms continue happening against the climate consequences that keep nature in danger, although they are rarer every time.
The spoilage of the fields looks reflected in the fact that they are not visible to the human townships, and the most hidden landscapes are those in which experiments bloom in their ground. The Death Valley, Anza-Borrego, Joshua Tree, and the Arid Carrizo Plainal, are some of the national parks in which this botanical phenomenon is still visible.
This winter has seen an abundance of rain, a pattern that comes from last autumn. In this sense, it seems that the regions of the southwest of the states are preparing the scenario for a huge spring superbloom during 2023.
“It could or not end up being a superbloom,” says Abby Wines, who is the forest ranger from the national park of Death Valley. “But we are predicting a superbloom above average,” she concluded.
Story originally published in Spanish in Ecoosfera
