Spectacular 'Super Bloom' Is Just Days Away In This California Desert

It's about to transform into a sea of purple, yellow and white.
Wildflowers in Anza Borrego Desert State Park.
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Wildflowers in Anza Borrego Desert State Park.

Southern Californians are in for a display of dazzling beauty, with an expected “super bloom” of wildflowers in the Anza-Borrego Desert within the next couple of weeks.

Wildflowers in the desert, about two hours east of San Diego, typically bloom annually. But this year’s bloom is expected to be grander than most because the desert has gotten more rain than usual since December, according to KPBS.

The extra precipitation has led to numerous wildflowers popping up. One of the most eye-popping of those is the sand verbena, which blankets the area with purple.

You only have a week or two to wait for an explosion of color in the desert.
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You only have a week or two to wait for an explosion of color in the desert.

Those flowers are just beginning to bloom now, as the San Diego Union Tribune documented on Friday.

Botanist Jim Dice, who is also the husband of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park superintendent, told the Tribune that the “prime” annual bloom is about a week or two away. If photos from previous years’ blooms are any indication, it should be an amazing sight.

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Flowers brighten the desert on Feb. 15, 1999.
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Abronia villosa is a species of sand-verbena more commonly known as desert sand-verbena and chaparral sand-verbena. It is a short, hairy annual wildflower that grows in creeping prostrate masses along the ground. It has oval-shaped, dull green leaves and many peduncles bearing rounded inflorescences of bright magenta or purplish-pink flowers. It grows in the sand of the deserts and coastlines. It has a very sweet fragrance and is also very sticky. They usually grow between February and May.
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The Anzo-Borrego Desert in bloom.
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The most iconic wildflower in the Anzo-Borrego is the purple sand verbena.
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Desert Primrose and Sand Verbena in Anza Borrego State Part, California.
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Anza-Borrego Desert State Park on March 18, 2008. A dune sunflower sticks up above the sand-hugging desert verbina in Coyote Canyon.
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Sand verbena and white primroses blanket the desert.
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Purple sand verbena and white primroses in the Anzo-Borrego Desert.
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Very colorfull, blooming Anza Borrego Desert in California.
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Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California, United States, North America.
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Spring Wildflowers In Anza Borrego Desert State Park, California.
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Spring Wildflowers In Anza Borrego Desert State Park, California.
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Abronia villosa is native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, where it grows in sandy habitats from desert to beach.
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Borrego Springs resident Jonathan Palacio runs through a field of desert sunflowers blooming along Henderson Canyon Road in Anza Borrego Desert State Park. Feb.14, 2005.
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