Tucson Wildflower Watch 2022: What flowers you’ll see and where to find them 🌼

The sun is shining, the weather is warm and the wildflowers are blooming in Tucson. This can mean only one thing: spring has officially arrived.

Although Tucson was fortunate enough to experience the third-wettest monsoon season last summer, a drier winter will make native wildflowers a little more difficult to find this spring.

But not completely impossible to find. You just have to look a little harder and lower to see the colorful blooms.

“This year is kind of an interesting year because we had such amazing summer rains,” said Grace Stoner, a horticulturist at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. “Throughout summer, wildflowers are just off the charts. But our winter rains have been a little lighter than usual and they came a little late. So, a lot of the wildflowers that we'll see this year will be kind of extra small, so you really have to look for them.”

Because the winter rain arrived a little later in the year, wildflowers didn’t have as much time “to put on vegetative growth before they've started flowering,” they said. So this year’s spring wildflowers will be “short” and “hidden beneath other vegetation,” they added.

But what types of wildflowers can we expect to see this season and where can we find them?

Types of wildflowers you can see around Tucson

Some of the “annuals” we can see this spring include the Mexican gold poppy, pink parry penstemon, wild heliotrope, Arizona jewelflower, parry dalea and the desert lupine, according to Stoner.

The bright blue and purple desert lupines are a “fan-favorite,” Stoner said, but “have been a little sparse this year.”

Other blooms you can see right now include desert chicory, desert hyacinth, yellow bladderpod and wild carrot, according to Stoner.

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Last year’s monsoon season stimulated an excess growth in some wildflowers, like the small purple blooms of the marina parryi (parry dalea). The wildflower, which is one of Stoner’s favorites, has continued to bloom since the monsoon season.

“Wildflowers contribute a lot of food for native pollinators,” they said. “Especially, at this time when kind of a lot of plants have been scarce on food for these pollinators. There hasn't been a lot of flowering over the winter, you know, so these wildflowers are kind of coming out and, like, offering this awesome food source for all these pollinators. And it's just this lovely time where everyone's waking back up and everything is abundant again.”

Where to find wildflowers in Tucson

There are quite a few places to check out native wildflowers around Tucson, but Stoner says your best bet to see them is in wash bottoms, along roadsides and in other areas with “more water accumulation.”

Stoner’s recommendations are the Tucson Mountains, Catalina State Park and King Canyon Trail near the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

Other places you may find wildflowers this spring include Saguaro National Park, Sabino Canyon and Picacho Peak State Park (if you're up for a drive).

If you’re looking to scratch your wildflower itch but can’t make it to one of the locations above, check out the gardens at the Tucson Botanical Gardens and Tohono Chul.

But remember, when looking for wildflowers in the great outdoors, gaze a little harder because this year’s blooms may be a little shorter and more hidden than usual.

“So you really have to maybe just lay on the ground, look really closely to see them,” Stoner said. “But they're kind of all the more special for that reason. Because even when they're tiny, they still bloom and are beautiful.”

Want to see what’s blooming across Arizona? Check out Wildflower Watch Arizona’s Instagram page for photos of what’s blooming this spring.