Desert wildflowers are an added bonus to an already spectacular landscape. The timeless beauty of the towering redrock cliffs and canyons incised into this landscape, the gravity-defying arches and rock spires, and the rich geologic history exposed in the various formation creates the scenic backdrop highlighted by splashes of wildflower Crayola™.

Diverse in shape and structure, these plants exhibit amazing adaptations to this land of little rain. Many wildflowers bear small leaves with a waxy coating called the cuticle which enable the plants to resist moisture loss through the leaves to the atmosphere. Tiny portals or windows on the leaves called stomata, open and close during the day to allow for the passage of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the leaf which is converted into oxygen (O2) and glucose through the process of photosynthesis. Some oxygen is released during the time when these stomata are open or during another process called respiration which may happen day or night.

Annual wildflowers which grow for only one season before they die, produce seeds with a water-impermeable coating which prevents the seed from germinating when soil moisture or temperatures are unfavorable for germination. These seeds may exist in the soil for years, awaiting the right conditions to sprout and grow. This dormancy is affected by the seed coat and chemical inhibitors that prevent the seed’s embryo from germinating prematurely, thus enabling the seed to sprout when conditions are more favorable for success. Of course, there are many variations to this scheme that different plants employ, thus some years there may be an abundance of a certain wildflowers such as spectacle-pod or dwarf lupine while other species don’t seem so abundant.

Some seeds which depend upon light to germinate may end up being buried by desert sands; hence, they lie in wait for some type of action to bring them up close to the surface where sunlight triggers their germination.

Shrubs and perennial wildflowers which grow for more than one season also exhibit adaptations to the desert such as extensive root systems; small, waxy coated leaves; or spiny branches to defend against herbivores. These plants play a longer game than the annual wildflowers which race through their life cycle before drying up. Shrubs such as blackbrush, sagebrush, four-wing saltbush, and cliffrose are slow growing and persistent, while common paintbrush, yellow cryptantha, and the Canyonlands biscuitroot add color.

When conditions are right, these shrubs may have extensive blooms to take advantage of abundant moisture and produce a lot of seed. Like the desert wildflowers, this seed may lay dormant in the soil until conditions to germinate are good.

The classic desert-adapted plant are the cacti of which there are several species that grow in the Canyonlands Region. These plants have evolutionarily gotten rid of their leaves; instead, the stems and pads of the cacti have greenish stems which function like leaves but without the potential moisture loss. Spine tipped for protection against predators and to break up desiccating winds across their pads, these plants have a whole different system of photosynthesis which they employ, often at night, to exchange gases from the plant to the atmosphere and vice versa. The chemical pathway that these plants use to convert sunlight and gases into various compounds is also vastly different than the one most shrubs and wildflowers use. And, though cacti have a pulpy interior, it’s not the “barrel of water” storage that Snoopy’s cousin Spike would have us believe.

Prickly pear cacti with their colorful flowers and flattened pads differ from the barrel-shaped Whipple’s fishhook or claret-cup cacti, though the later also produce colorful flowers. Finding a clump of claret-cup cacti in bloom at the base of a sandstone cliff is an exceptional treat for any desert explorer.

The parade of spring wildflowers often starts in early February and gains momentum in April and May for a grand finale later in the summer. Timing is everything to these plants and it’s amazing to see the progression of species flowering throughout the season. Enjoy the blooms and the pollinators attracted to these plants, and please respect their longevity and perseverance in this land of little rain.