Spring has fully arrived in the Owen’s Valley and our Weekly Wildflower Updates are starting back up again!  Flowers are blooming throughout the Owen’s Valley, with the Alabama Hills, Buttermilks, Volcanic Tablelands and Big Pine areas looking especially good right now.

Smell something sweet in the air? Two of our most fragrant flowers, desert peach and antelope bitter brush, are blooming around Bishop and Round Valley.  One of the best smells of spring!  If you’re out looking at desert peach, notice how it usually grows in clusters of shrubs – this is because desert peach can reproduce clonally like aspen trees, so if you see a large grove of desert peach it is most likely all the same plant!

Lupines are also starting to bloom throughout the Valley, from the small and delicate Mojave lupine up in the Tablelands to the big, bushy grape soda lupine along Glacier Lodge road.  Lupines are pollinator magnets and the plants we found were buzzing with happy bees, moths, and butterflies.

Look down and get low – the desert floor is carpeted with “belly plants” (because you have to get down on your belly to see them!) right now.  Woollydaisies, sandblossoms, golden linanthus are blooming heavily in spots thanks to the rains we got earlier in the winter.  These diminutive annuals are adapted to thrive in dry, gravel and sandy soil.  Look really closely at a Wallace’s woollydaisy and you’ll see its leaves are covered in dense white fuzz, which helps it retain water in the harsh high desert.

Swipe through to see some more of the flowers we’re finding in the Owen’s Valley right now.  Have you been out wildflower viewing this spring yet? If you go out wildflower hunting, remember to Leave No Trace by staying on trails and enjoying the flowers by taking photos instead of picking flowers.