The phenomenon is rare and triggered by the exceptional rainfall experienced by California in recent weeks. Enough to provoke a rush of amateur photographers towards the mountains and valleys covered with flowers. This worries the authorities who fear that all the flora will be trampled.
It is an exceptional natural phenomenon in California and for once it is neither a mega-fire, nor a snowstorm, nor an episode of torrential rain. It’s called the “superbloom”, in other words the flowering at the same time throughout the American state of billions of California poppies and other wildflowers, covering mountains and valleys with an orange, yellow, purple and blue dress for a few days only.
It is ephemeral and quite rare. The last “superbloom” happened in 2019, because a very wet winter is needed to trigger this simultaneous outbreak. At the start of spring 2023, California is emerging from several rainy and snowy episodes, the atmospheric rivers, which have waterlogged the soils where the seeds of future flowers were. For two days, the “superbloom” is in progress, and the affair is the delight of the media. Of Los Angeles Times To CNNABC or Fox News, all send reporters on site and publish interactive maps to find the best hatch.
Prevent thousands of amateur photographers from trampling all the flora
On Instagram and TikTok, the motto #superbloom comes up hundreds of thousands of times. And for good reason, everyone wants their poppy photo, their photo of themselves in front of the flowers, even lying in them, even if it means crushing everything for a few comments and “likes”. flattering on his profile. During the last giant outbreak, in 2019, this craze completely destroyed the flora of the Walker Canyon in California. In one day, all the plants, barely out of the ground, were trampled by waves of visitors, phones in hand and impossible to channel.
To avoid the same phenomenon this year, the sheriff of the cCounty of Riverside has just announced the temporary closure of Walker Canyon, with a fine for anyone trying to force their way into the site. A little further, in the Lancaster nature reserve, walkers are allowed, but invited to stay on the paths.
Funny situation, where it’s not so much the flower that we look at, but his Instagram account, where for one day, we admire what is considered the rest of the year as a weed. The poppy, a cousin of the poppy, is indeed the target of the most varied herbicides because it has the fault of resowing itself and flowering on its own. Funny situation that speaks of us, of our contradictions, but also of our penchant for wonder, entirely contained in a wild flower.
