A Walk on the Wild Side

This is the time of year when the Sonoran desert of the Coachella Valley comes alive. Hiking recently on a trail called The Cross (where humans erected a giant lighted cross at the top of a hill) in Palm Desert, we came across myriad native wildflowers.

They’re there for all to see, but you have to look. At a glance, the path appears more dead than alive:

But look closer and you start to see:

That’s a native annual wildflower called Fremont's pincushion (Chaenactis fremontii).

Here’s Notch-leaved Phacelia (Phacelia crenulata):

Sand Blazing Star (Mentzelia involucrata):

Emory's Rock Daisy (Perityle emoryi):

Brittlebush (Encelia farinosa):

Shrubby Deervetch (Acmispon rigidus):

California fagonbush (Fagonia laevis):

Creosote Bush (Larrea tridentata):

Arizona Lupine (Lupinus arizonicus):

Schott's Dalea (Psorothamnus schottii):

Pygmy Poppy (Eschscholzia minutiflora):

All of these things are clinging to some of the driest land imaginable, which received less than three inches of precipitation all last year and seven tenths of an inch so for in 2026.

Next time, I’ll show you what grows in the bottomlands—still dry but relatively wet. It’s amazing what life can adapt to, isn’t it?