Flashy annual wildflowers — gold poppies and lupines — often hog the blooming limelight in the spring, but colorful rewards await those who keep an eye out for other worthy species that are in bloom right now.
Among wildflowers you might spot on an easy walk on the Pima Canyon Trail north of Tucson are pink fairy dusters, blue dwarf morning glories and yellow brittlebush.
Take a hike on the Babad Do’ag Trail in the Catalina Mountains and you’ll probably see orange-red globemallow, purple featherplume and brittlebush galore.
Other desert and canyon trails in the area are likely to have those and other lesser-known wildflowers in bloom.
Meg Quinn, an environmental educator for Pima County and the author of books including “Wildflowers of the Desert Southwest,” listed some wildflowers that brighten the landscape even if their names are not as familiar as those famous gold poppies. Among them:
Ragged rockflower
- An early spring bloomer with sweet-scented white flowers, ragged rockflower is a woody shrub that prefers rocky canyons, often growing from cracks in rocks.
Trixis
- A shrubby, opportunistic bloomer often found in light shade under trees, trixis produces small clusters of golden-yellow flowers and exhibits rich green foliage, unlike the gray-green leaves of many desert shrubs.
Rock hibiscus
- This is a somewhat spindly perennial shrub with sparse gray-green foliage that periodically produces stunning lavender flowers into the late spring season when conditions are favorable.
