Several miles of occasionally rough road and two crossings of seasonally flooded channels brings you from the end of DiGiorgio Road through Lower Coyote Canyon to where you can park and scramble across a wide open washy area to the mouth of Box Canyon, which is a spectacular and apparently little-visited area full of interesting desert vegetation. At this point in early February, many annuals have begun to bloom, and the recent precipitation bodes well for a better blooming season than appeared likely a few weeks ago. An asterisk next to the common name indicates a non-native species, and an upside-down V symbol indicates a taxon that was new to me when I photographed it on this field trip.

Arizona lupine
Lupinus arizonicus
Fabaceae

Bearded cryptantha
Cryptantha barbigera
Boraginaceae

Spanish needles
Palafoxia arida var. arida
Asteraceae
[Named for José Rebolledo de Palafox y Melzi, 1776-1847]

Spectacle pod
Dithyrea californica
Brassicaceae

Desert sand verbena
Abronia villosa var. villosa
Nyctaginaceae

Peirson's brown-eyed primrose
Chylismia claviformis ssp. peirsonii
Onagraceae
[Named for Frank Warrington Peirson, 1865-1951]

Brittlebush
Encelia farinosa
Asteraceae
[Named for Christoph Entzelt, 1517-1583]

Basket evening primrose
Oenothera deltoides ssp. deltoides
Onagraceae

Desert dandelion
Malacothrix glabrata
Asteraceae

Palmer's crinklemat
Tiquilia palmeri
Boraginaceae
[Named for Edward Palmer, 1829-1911]

Small-seeded spurge
Chamaesyce polycarpa
Euphorbiaceae

Desert chicory
Rafinesquia neomexicana
Asteraceae
[Named for Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz, 1783-1840]

Longbeak streptanthella
Streptanthella longirostris
Brassicaceae

Desert agave
Agave deserti
Liliaceae

Mulefat
Baccharis salicifolia ssp. salicifolia
Asteraceae

Schott's indigo bush
Psorothamnus schottii
Fabaceae
[Named for Arthur Carl Victor Schott, 1814-1875]

Redroot cryptantha
Cryptantha micrantha
Boraginaceae