Tag Archives: blossoms

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Desert Star Flowers

Image March 3, 2026 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

As I mentioned yesterday in the first post following our late-February visit to Death Valley, the main stories this time were wildflowers and Lake Manly. This post is about the former. We went to the place where I photographed these desert star (or Mojave star) flowers looking for sand verbena and desert gold, and we definitely found them. But there were lots of other flowers, too, including these tiny specimens.

I’ve always been aware of wildflowers — kind of hard to ignore them when they appear in large numbers and brilliant colors! But I’ve missed a lot about them, too, as I focused on other elements of the landscape. But my wife, Patricia Emerson Mitchell, wildflowers are her thing. And photographing with her taught me to look down and see things that I had missed before. This is especially true in the desert, where there are myriad tiny wildflowers underfoot in the most surprising places.

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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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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Chinese Houses Flowers

Image July 4, 2025 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

I have often wondered about the popular name of these “Chinese houses” flowers — what the connection could possibly be with houses from China. Regardless, they are among the spring wildflowers that grow in the oak forests and grasslands around the San Francisco Bay Area, including a trail through a park south of San Jose where I photographed these specimens.

Some flowers are pretty easy to photograph — they are colorful and have shapes that are easy to photograph. (Close-ups of some flowers are tricky due to the narrow depth of field at short distances.) I’ve never found the Chinese houses easy to photograph. It is difficult to find a plant on which all of the buds are in this colorful stage — usually some are not open or already turning brown. The plant often grows low to the ground among other distracting elements. Bright sun can create dark shadows and wash out details. So I was pleased to find this group in an areas of soft, shaded light and to find all of the flowers open and colorful.

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(All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.)

Photographs: Mono Lake Basin

Rabbitbrush, Ghost Forest

Image June 19, 2024 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

On a late-September morning I headed out into country near Mono Lake, eventually turning off the two-late highway to follow a random gravel track that traced the edge of an extraordinarily large ponderosa pine forest. This area within sight of Mono Lake was burned in a forest fire years ago, and there are still lots of dead trees around the fringe of the forest. The stark beauty of the skeletal trees intrigued me, and I eventually found a place to stop and explore a bit.

This is an austere landscape. Even where the trees still grow there is a lot of space between them, likely due to the dry environment. In many places there is only sagebrush country, and in this spot the sandy soil supports even less vegetation. But it the middle of this — and against the backdrop of those dead trees — rabbitbrush plants were in full, colorful bloom.

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Desert Gold

Image April 3, 2024 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The wildflowers in California’s deserts and here in Death Valley National Park vary wildly from year to year depending on the amount of precipitation and its timing. There are always some flowers, but they are scarce when it is dry. Every so often the conditions shake out just right and the desert and mountains explode with color. It is hard to predict precisely when it will happen or to what degree. This year there was plenty of water, but the schedule was odd. When flowers bloomed way early (back in late 2023!) some thought that the spring color might be a bust — but that is not what seems to be happening.

I was surprised to find an extensive bloom of desert gold flowers stretching across upper Panamint Valley. I saw it when I arrived at the park, and days later it had grown stronger as I left. From what I saw — surprising blooms here and there and a lot of new green plants coming up — I won’t be surprised if this year’s bloom ultimately surpasses expectations.