Shutter Mike Photography

The hunt for wildflowers in the desert is on.  With heavier than usual rains this winter the promise of a bumper crop of desert wildflowers has been enticing for photographers.  The various wildflower spotting sites have had reports coming in from all over Arizona of sightings of everything from Mexican Poppies to Lupine and Globemallow.  I headed east of Phoenix this past weekend along the Apache trail and although there were not carpets of wildflowers covering the landscape they are starting to pop up mostly along the roadsides.  I would anticipate in another couple of weeks we are going to see some spectacular displays far beyond the medians.

I am by no means an expert on identifying wildflowers but with the help of a guide like National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers: Western Region I think I have come pretty close to getting the flowers I saw identified.  Please let me know if I have gotten any wrong.  The flower to the left is the Desert Chia (Salvia columbariae).  It almost looks like it is two flowers in one with the smaller blue flowers attached to the larger deep purple ball of spines.

Coulter’s Globemallow