Photo galleries I have done in the month of November have been extremely rare, but thanks to some information from Bill Bulger, a person very familiar with this part of Joshua Tree National Park, a group of us including Bill, Tom Chester, Walt Fidler, Mike Crouse and myself headed out to the Wonderland of Rocks. There had been some fairly heavy monsoonal rains in a very localized area about eight weeks previously, and that rainfall had germinated an amazingly wonderful array of blooming flora. We saw a total of 46 species in bloom. Subsequent trips to nearby areas produced about 30 more species in bloom. This particular part of Joshua Tree is beautifully scenic and the terrain is almost entirely flat, a 12-square mile expanse of jumbled monzogranite boulders that hide numerous interesting plants. The day was sunny and the temperature was in the 60's and low 70's, and we only wished we had more time to spend exploring. The Boy Scout trailhead is about seven miles from the West Entrance Station on Park Blvd off Twentynine Palms Highway. I returned the following week to rephotograph some things and make it to Willow Hole. This area is definitely a place I want to return to in the spring to see what different things are blooming then. The Eriogonum brachyanthum on page 4 has been vouchered along this trail but the pictures shown here were taken at nearby Quail Springs. An upside-down V next to the common name is for a species that was new to me when I photographed it on this field trip, the symbol ~ indicates a tentative identification that needs to be confirmed, and an asterisk is for a non-native taxon.

California barrel cactus
Ferocactus cylindraceus
Cactaceae

Fringed amaranth
Amaranthus fimbriatus
Amaranthaceae

Desert mistletoe
Phoradendron californicum
Viscaceae

Apricot mallow
Sphaeralcea ambigua var. ambigua
Malvaceae