We stopped in southern Death Valley to photograph big fields of desert gold flowers along with pink/purple sand verbena. Because they are large plants, the colors from both of those were visible from a distance, especially so in the case of desert gold. As we looked for good photo opportunities for those flowers we started to notice the myriad other small plants and flowers underfoot, including the desert stars.
Continue reading Desert Star Bouquet
The desert star flower has become a bit of a… star here at the blog recently. It is one of the small flowers that you might easily overlook in Death Valley, but once you spot them they are abundant, poking up just above the ground, often in small groups. They are pretty flowers, but you have to get down close to the ground to appreciate them.
Big fields of wildflower color get the attention of visitors to Death Valley in a year like this, when earlier rains produced an impressive wildflower bloom. At the end of February we saw whole hillsides covered with desert gold and phacelia, and sand verbena covered the ground in some low places. But a closer look reveals a world of other small and inconspicuous flowers like the desert star.
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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email
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A good number of my recent Death Valley (almost?) superbloom photographs feature vast fields of these yellow flowers. Because they appear in large numbers, standing tall and swaying in the wind, they are among the most obvious visual evidence of the bloom. It occurred to me that I rarely photograph them close up, so here’s an attempt t rectify that omission.
Desert gold flowers grow at the top of long stems above plants that may, in the right conditions, have some rather thick leaves. Because the stems are long and thin the plants are almost always waving back and forth in the breeze. This can make close-up photographs a bit of a challenge!
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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email
All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.
When we think of a Death Valley “Superbloom” (the periodic eruption of astonishing numbers of wildflowers in wet years) most of us visualize gravel fans, hillsides, and washes full of impressive masses of wildflower color. In fact, that vision is not far off track. (I have posted and will post photographs of such things.) But you will see a fascinating world of smaller and more subtle flowers underfoot if you stop and look down.
I admit that I did not originally “look down” that much, but I learned from my wife, Patricia Emerson Mitchell, to stop and see these small treasures. The flowers in this photograph are desert (or Mojave) stars. The plants are so small that it is easy to miss them, and the flowers hug close to the ground. We found these while stopping for big fields of desert gold and sand verbena, and once we saw a few of the desert stars we realized that they were everywhere.
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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email
All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.