California's superblooms can be seen from space

Wildflowers between highways (Satellite image ©2023 Maxar Technologies via Los Angeles Times)

Image from Washington Post collection of satellite photos from
Planet Labs PBC notes one species of wildflowers; the purple
flowers are Great Valley phacella (Phacella ciliata). 

In a galaxy, not far away, comes something epic: superblooms! Nature's flower power has come to California and the world via space photos, reports Terry Castleman of the Los Angeles Times. "New satellite photos from Maxar show hillsides across the state adorned with flowers . . . The variety of colors is astonishing."

The last superbloom was in 2019. It takes a unique series of conditions, beginning with dormant seeds tucked away in the soil, report Allyson Chiu and Naema Ahmed of The Washington Post: "Naomi Fraga, director of conservation programs at the California Botanic Garden, told the Post that . . . the flowers are waiting for 'just the right conditions' to start their life cycle. California's impressive floral showing is most likely connected to the massive amounts of precipitation that drenched much of the state in recent months."

Fraga told the Post, "They're winter annuals; they respond to winter rain. . . . When the seed bank in the soil experiences this sort of range of temperatures and precipitation across time, then that can stimulate several different species to germinate." Chiu and Ahmed explain, "Before the heavy rains and snowfall that pummeled the state . . . California had experienced three of its driest years on record. The drought could have reduced the number of invasive grass seed on the landscape and helped improve the chances for native plants to capitalize on the heavy rains and thrive."

"Superbloom" is not a scientific term, but is "a wonderful natural phenomenon where many annual wildflowers all bloom simultaneously," Fraga said. "You have a great diversity, an abundance of many different wildflower species, all flowering, creating bright patches of color on the landscape where they become the dominant feature. . . . [the blooms] are an ephemeral phenomenon." 

"If people aren't mindful when they visit these flower patches, experts say, there will probably be consequences," the Post reports. Walking through blooms could trample the flowers before they produce seeds. High foot traffic could also compact the soil, making it more difficult for flowers to grow in that area." If you're in California to experience the super bloom, there's a solution to "not squishing flowers" and possibly snuffing out their ability to seed and reproduce. Go by zipline, suggests Jeanette Marantos of the Times: "At $90 to $160 a person — depending on the length of the ride — the experience is more expensive than parking your car and wading through flowers, but it's also much kinder to these fragile native plants." Fraga pointed out to the Post, "It's not just for our enjoyment or the display. It's life happening. . . . For that life cycle to continue, we need to know that this flower isn't the end goal. The end goal is the seed."