Wildflowers are blooming in the driest place in North America — but not for long

tomwt — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 22:05:43 +0000

Wildflowers are blooming in the driest place in North America — but not for long tomwt Tue, 03/10/2026 - 15:05 More CNAS in the Media Jessica Hill | AP | The Washington Post March 10, 2026

THE WASHINGTON POST - Death Valley, known as the driest place in North America, is teeming with life with a once-in-a-decade blossoming of wildflowers known as a superbloom, transforming a normally brown desert landscape into carpets of gold.

Wildflowers bloom across parts of southern California and Nevada at different degrees usually every year. In some years, superblooms are so vibrant they can be seen from space . But it’s rare for Death Valley National Park, the hottest place on Earth, to burst with color.

“This landscape that sometimes people think of as desolate or devoid of life is coming alive right now with this really beautiful palette of colors,” said park ranger Matthew Lamar.

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Ecologists say the superbloom disproves a misconception about deserts: that there’s no life. Even in years without vibrant blooms, a lot of life happens in Death Valley, said Loralee Larios, plant ecologist at the University of California, Riverside.

“The plants and the animals have developed really amazing strategies to be able to persist, and especially in a system like Death Valley that’s really sort of characterized by extremes,” Larios said.

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