Eschscholzia californica (California poppy) (amapola de California)

The most prominent of our desert poppies, and our state flower, is the familiar California poppy. California poppies occur widely over grasslands and oak woodlands throughout California but are also notably abundant in the western Mojave Desert. Their orange to yellow flowers often color the expanses of the landscape in favorable years, growing both as an annual or perennial. The Antelope Valley Poppy Preserve, near Lancaster, is famous for its spring displays of poppies. Interestingly, California poppies thrive with disturbance and regular grazing promotes the dominance of this species. The odd generic name commemorates a Russian naturalist and surgeon, Dr. Johann Friedrich Gustav von Eschscholtz who first collected this California poppy near San Francsico in 1815. Somehow the "t" in his name was lost in translation. "California Desert Plants, Philip W Rundel, Robert J Gustafson, Michael E Kauffmann."

Easily the most popular, most photographed annual wildflower in the Sonoran Desert, this poppy's petals are usually gold to orange in color. Sometimes white and pink mutants show up amidst large golden stands. Its highly dissected, lacy foliage gives rise to solitary-stalked, four-petalled blooms on plains, bajadas, and mountain slopes below 4, 500 feet. Probably better pollinated, its blooming begins in mid-February in warmer locales like Phoenix and Yuma but is more limited to March and April near Tucson and Tumacacori. "Arizona Highways Presents Desert Wildflowers, 1988".