Desert Blooms

Title

Desert Blooms

Artist

Stephanie Grant

Medium

Photograph - Digital / Photography

Description

A photograph of desert sunflowers and chicory growing after the rains in Death Valley.
The desert sunflower Geraea canescens, grows 1 to 3 feet tall and has golden yellow flower heads at the ends of branches. Geraea comes from the Greek word 'geraios' for 'old man' referring to the white hairs that cover the seed-like fruits.
The Desert Chicory, Rafinesquia neomexicana is member of the Sunflower Family (Asteraceae) . It's white flowers are often seen growing among other plants that give needed support for it's weak stems growing 6 to 20 inches tall.

Death Valley is well known for extremes: it is North America's driest and hottest spot (with fewer than two inches/five centimeters of rainfall annually and a record high of 134�F), and has the lowest elevation on the continent�282 feet below sea level.
The valley is a graben, a geological term for a sunken fragment of the earth�s crust .The national park covers an area of about 3.4 million acres and offers many different landscapes, eroded rocks, colorful mudstone hills and canyons, luminous sand dunes, lush oases, and a 200-square-mile salt pan surrounded by mountains. Spring rains can trigger wildflower blooms turning barren wastes to fields of color.
Artifacts and rock art show that the Valley has seen human occupation, for at least parts of the year, for over 9,000 years.
In 1849 emigrants bound for California's gold fields strayed into the 120-mile long basin, enduring a two-month ordeal of "hunger and thirst and an awful silence." One of the last to leave called it Death Valley and the name stuck.
Borax mines were in operation from 1883 to 1889, using the now famous 20 mule wagon teams to haul the mineral. Workers spread the word about the wonders of Death Valley.
As well as over a thousand varieties of plants, Death Valley is home to 51 native species of mammals, 38 reptiles as well as more than 300 species of visiting birds.

Uploaded

March 18th, 2016

Statistics

Viewed 112 Times  -  Last Visitor from Fairfield, CT on 04/18/2024 at 6:43 AM

Colors

Embed

Sales Sheet