Emily Chan
The state of California is undergoing a rare outbreak of flowers across fields and valleys. It only occurs after an exceptionally wet season, along with a number of other factors that contribute to such an explosion of color.
This phenomenon is called a “super bloom.” It happens in nature when a bunch of annual wildflowers end up blooming at the same time.
For the past few years, California has suffered extreme drought, bringing on many wildfires that stripped the surrounding land of plant growth.
It’s hard to predict when super blooms will occur with California’s fickle precipitation cycle. The last time the state experienced a super bloom was in 2019.
But in recent months, particularly over the winter, California has received torrents of rain and snowfall, resulting in blossoms ranging from purple to yellow and orange.
During the dry years, the flower seeds have lain dormant underneath the soil, just waiting for the right conditions and a sufficient amount of rainfall to sprout.
So the drought might actually have given the wildflowers a chance to thrive by keeping invasive grasses away. And once the blooms were able to have a nice, long drink, they burst through the ground.
Tourists are flocking to the fields of flowers to admire their beauty after a dreary winter full of floods and mudslides. While that’s all fine and good, experts are warning people to be cautious about where they step when visiting the flower patches.
Running through a meadow dotted with flowers may fulfill your fantasy of being a Disney princess, but the plant life you’ll inevitably be crushing under your feet will suffer for it.
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