LAUREN GILGER: Arizona got a lot of rain last fall and into the winter. And now we’re experiencing a sort of early spring where some days, temperatures sit in the cloudy 60s and others, we’re seeing sunny 80-degree afternoons.
It’s left many Arizonans wondering if we might get another wildflower superbloom, like we did in 2023. This has become a hot topic here at The Show.
And even longtime travel writer Roger Naylor is up-in-the-air about it.
ROGER NAYLOR: Well, this year is different because I think it is the most confusing wildflower season I can ever recall. I mean, on the one hand, far more blooms than normal graced the desert all winter long.
Brittlebrush have been showy since December. Poppies and lupines made surprise appearances in January, joining more traditional early bloomers like fairy duster and Chuparosa.
GILGER: Naylor says the early, winter-long bloom is a result of all that autumn rain.
NAYLOR: And then when a wave of moisture rolled in through the holidays — I mean, the stage was set. Everybody was thinking, "this is a potential superbloom year." But then the faucet got turned off. Because since then, conditions have stayed mostly very dry and very warm
MARK BRODIE: But one expert is still optimistic about a potential abundance of wildflowers in the coming months despite the early activity.
Theresa Crimmins is an associate professor in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of Arizona and the director of the USA National Phenology Network.
THERESA CRIMMINS: What I believe that I have been seeing this, kind of like, fall, winter, spring is a muddle of stuff happening because we had such a crummy monsoon … and then it finally started raining in October, which is not a season, not a month, that we typically have good rains.
And then it kept raining on a regular basis. And it was super warm. And so what I actually have seen is a decent number of both the plants and insects and arthropods that are typically associated with the monsoon, the summer season, finally happening in like December — I think the last summer stuff finally came online late because it finally experienced some rain.
And then also combined with the very warm winter, that prompts some of the springtime stuff to come early.
GILGER: Crimmins agrees that this year’s wildflower season may not qualify as a superbloom, per se, but it’s already shaping up to be a brilliant showing.
CRIMMINS: I don’t disagree that we have kind of a mixed bag of stuff happening out there. But I also think that there’s still a good chance for impressive amounts of the annual plants that do seem to respond to the winter — fall and winter — rainfall.
I think we’re in for a treat no matter what. Because when we get this much rain, something’s going to flower. Lots of stuff is gonna flower.
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