Thanks to a report on the Desert USA website by John Marquis, I headed out to the Desert Center area where there was supposed to be a good bloom. Driving west on I-10, there was one area west of the entrance to Joshua Tree that was quite floristic, then it was very sparse until I approached the Desert Center area. Corn Springs Road is about 8 miles east of Desert Center. You exit at Chuckwalla Valley Road, turn left, then right onto Corn Springs Road, which is a good dirt road that leads to Corn Springs Campground in about 8 miles. The entire area there is an alluvial plain coming off of the Chuckwalla Mts which is dissected with numerous washes and arroyos, some fairly deep, and the bloom there is quite terrific right now. Most of these pictures were taken in that location, but a few were shot in a Joshua Tree National Park wash coming off the east end of the Coxcomb Mts adjacent to SR-177 and those are indicated by a + sign next to the common name. An upside-down V next to the common name indicates a taxon that was new to me when I photographed it on this field trip.

Desert dandelion
Malacothrix glabrata
Asteraceae

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

Arizona lupine
Lupinus arizonicus
Fabaceae

Smooth-stemmed fagonia
Fagonia laevis
Zygophyllaceae
[Named for Guy-Crescent Fagon, (1638-1718]

Yellow cups
Chylismia brevipes ssp. brevipes
Onagraceae

Brandegea, Desert starvine Brandegea bigelovii Cucurbitaceae [Named for Townsend Stith Brandegee, 1843-1925, and John Milton Bigelow, 1804-1878]

Parish's poppy
Eschscholzia parishii
Papaveraceae
[Named for the Parish brothers]

Desert sunflower
Geraea canescens
Asteraceae

Thick-leaved ground cherry +
Physalis crassifolia
Solanaceae

Woollyhead neststraw ^
Stylocline micropoides
Asteraceae

Desert tobacco +
Nicotiana obtusifolia
Solanaceae
[Named for Jean Nicot de Villemain, 1530-1600]