@JigmeDatse @cptbutton I sent an email suggesting this as a topic to the in defense of plants podcast.
My theory isthat the pollinators either ramp up nest size for that year, or that they only emerge under the same conditions as would create a super bloom. Or both.
It’s feasible, especially for bumblebees, that food and water are the limiting factor to nest size
OK, a superbloom is a thing where when conditions are just right a huge number of plants flower all at once in what is usually a rather barren area. These can happen years apart.
So how do all these flowers get pollinated?
How do the bees or other insects survive between superblooms?
Are they just relying on wind?
Or do most of those flowers go unpollinated?
Seep Monkeyflower
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/470643-Erythranthe-guttata?locale=en-us
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythranthe_guttata?wprov=sfla1
#california #wildflowers #flowers #bloomscrolling #superbloom #mountains #hiking #Southerncalifornia
Purple Owl's-Clover
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/49343-Castilleja-exserta?locale=en-us
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castilleja_exserta?wprov=sfla1
#california #wildflowers #flowers #bloomscrolling #superbloom #mountains #hiking #Southerncalifornia
Photographer drives 1,000 miles to #DeathValley for spectacular superbloom: https://zorz.it/rPMNx
#MattGrowcoot #desert #ElliotMcGucken #flowers #California #superbloom #WildFlowers #WesternDeserts
Wild Hyacinth
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/1196784-Dipterostemon-capitatus?locale=en-us
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dipterostemon?wprov=sfla1
#california #wildflowers #flowers #bloomscrolling #superbloom #mountains #hiking #Southerncalifornia
#DeathValley sees its most spectacular #superbloom in a decade
The #wildflowers have painted the usually barren landscape of #DeathValleyNationalPark — one of the hottest and driest places in the country — in pretty pink, purple and yellow.
March 8, 2026, 6:00 AM EDT
By Denise Chow
Excerpt: " 'You can think of it like drought evasion,' said Erik Rakestraw, a curator of botany at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson. 'In their seed form, it’s like they’re not even existing. They’re just laying in the soil.'
"In the proper conditions, the seeds will germinate. Then, after the flowers are pollinated, they’ll turn back to seeds and the cycle will begin again."
Purple Owl's Clover & Goldfields
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/49343-Castilleja-exserta?locale=en-us
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/50988-Lasthenia?locale=en-us
#california #wildflowers #hiking #bloomscrolling #superbloom
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