http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/science/south-africa-flowers-namaqualand.html 2016-10-05 12:10:04 Why a South African Desert Blooms Into an Annual Flower Show Few desert superblooms erupt as consistently or on schedule as the floral display in Namaqualand. === It’s happened. Summer is over — in the top half of the world. But while the fiery colors of fall are beginning their descent upon the green leaves of America’s East Coast, a rainbow of spring flowers is blooming into a short-lived, colorful carpet for a South African desert. Superblooms can bring impressive palates to deserts across the world, but few erupt as consistently or on schedule as the flower show in South Africa’s Namaqualand. Every year in August and September, and sometimes through October, millions of wildflowers bloom along 600 miles of coastal desert and arid zones along South Africa’s western coast. Visitors share photos on social media all season. Right now, with the hashtag #Namaqualand, you can still see their photos popping up on Namaqualand isn’t the only place for desert flowers. Americans get them in the Mojave Desert, too. This February, Death Valley experienced a The region’s predictable yearly rainfall, he said, is what makes Namaqualand one of the best flower shows around. For a whole year, seeds from more than 4,000 plant species — thousands of them every square meter — sit in the soil awaiting late winter rains in South Africa. But in Chile, Dr. Rundel says, seeds can wait decades, and a good show happens only every 20 or 30 years. Something like what we saw in Death Valley this year may come once a decade. “If you want to fly to South Africa and see wildflowers, you’ve got a much better chance of seeing them than the other way around,” Dr. Rundel said. Besides making shows more frequent, the consistent rainfall makes for a particularly colorful set, adorned with super-bright bulb flowers you won’t find in deserts like the Mojave. They’re “very showy, almost electric colors — almost like they glow in the dark,” Dr. Rundel said. They flourish there because bulbs store up a ton of energy, and it pays to do so when a bulb can expect rain. All of these flowers pop up and compete. During the rainier years, you’ll see the most plant cover — flowers and succulents, mostly — but that also means less diversity because the most robust plants choke out all the others. In some places, grazing sheep weed out competition and make the show even better. “You probably get fewer species, but you get dramatic color,” Dr. Rundel said. Showy flowers mean lots of pollinators, and South Africa is home to some rather distinctive ones. The long-tongued bee, for instance, which is Soon, scorching summer temperatures will bring the Namaqualand flower show to a crispy end. But at least that beautiful superbloom can be counted on to return next year.