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SIERRA VISTA — Spring may be in the air, but the wildflowers haven’t arrived with it in many areas of Cochise County.
At least not yet.
Rob Call, horticultural extension agent with the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension in Cochise County, said there hasn’t been enough moisture and long enough periods of warmer temperatures to sprout the wildflowers.
That could change if the conditions change.
 Wildflowers haven’t shown too many spring colors just yet, but could in the next month. These beauties were found along Avenida Cochise. (Beatrice Richardson-Herald/Review) |
“Not all is lost yet,” Call said.
But, he added, the moisture has to be well-timed and well-placed.
Typically, wildflowers are prevalent between mid-March to April in areas that are in the high deserts like that found in Cochise County, Call said. Mexican poppies, which are yellow, and desert marigolds are common.
There are some areas in the county that Call had heard there were wildflowers, including in the San Simon and Bowie areas to the New Mexico border.
In the low deserts, such as that near Picacho Peak between Tucson and Phoenix and in the Tucson Mountains, the wildflowers are already blooming, according to a report from the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.
Cal said low deserts typically see wildflowers starting in February.
Precipitation in Tucson and the northern portions of Cochise County has been greater than that in the Sierra Vista and Bisbee areas, which helps bring out the flowers, he said.
Mark Dimmit, director of natural history at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson, said the most important factor for a good wildflower season is an early and wetter than average winter rainy season.
“These conditions assure that there will be lush growth of annual plants, but not necessarily the showy species,” he wrote in an e-mailed response to questions. “The other required factors are still quite a mystery.”
While the rainfall this winter was average in terms of rainfall totals in most of Southern Arizona, the rains were well spaced and the soil remained moist all winter, Dimmit said. This allowed annuals that germinated in the fall to keep active.
“So from the perspective of the plants, it was a wet year,” Dimmit said.
Kym Hall, superintendent of the Coronado National Memorial in the Palominas area, said she and her staff haven’t seen many wildflowers or had reports of many from visitors. Of course, she was talking just days after a winter storm dropped about 3 inches of snow on the memorial last weekend.
Hall expects wildflowers, such as penstemon and morning glories, to begin appearing in the next couple of weeks as temperatures rise.
Tom Lorenz, a rangeland management specialist with the U.S. Forest Service’s Sierra Vista Ranger District, said canyons, such as Miller Canyon, are a good place for people to start their search of wildflowers. Another area, he said, is near the San Pedro House on Highway 90 and along the San Pedro River.
HERALD/REVIEW Managing Editor Keith J. Allen can be reached at 515-4610 or by e-mail at keith.allen@svherald.com.
