Evening Primrose (Oenothera sp.) Courtesy Natural Sciences Department, Oakland Museum of California.

Joshua Tree blossom (detail) (Yucca brevifolia). Courtesy Natural Sciences Department, Oakland Museum of California.

The bloom is definitely on the brittlebush, ocotillo, bladderpod, and locoweed at the Oakland Museum of California’s 36th Annual California Wildflower Show. This year’s show features flowers from the California deserts, a huge area extending from the Mexican border to Owens Valley and from the mountains east of L.A. to the Colorado River and Nevada border.

“ We vary the date and region of the show every year to follow the ‘bloom’,” said Tom Steller, chief curator of Natural Sciences at the museum. “Even two weeks can make a difference in what’s available to us. If the winter rains continue in Southern California, the desert plants will be stunning in mid-April.”

The fragrant and colorful Wildflower Show is a field day for armchair botanists and nature lovers. The museum’s Natural Sciences Gallery displays more than 200 species and up to 300 specimens to be admired and examined. Microscope stations allow a closer look at the flowers’ complex inner structures and, occasionally, their insect inhabitants.

California Native Plant Society volunteers will be on hand all weekend to answer questions. Visitors can learn how to use native species in their gardens and conserve the state’s botanical diversity, or get information about existing threats to native wildflower populations and the organizations devoted to their protection.

Preparation for the Wildflower Show begins with three- to four-day gathering trips. The first days are spent prospecting for specimens, which are later carefully collected “in bud,” kept in a bleach and sugar solution for freshness, and driven to the museum in shaded, air-conditioned cars to prevent heat damage to the flowers. Botanists quickly sort, identify, and label them for the show.

Wild for Flowers!, the museum’s Family Explorations! program for April, explores the Wildflower Show and provides hands-on activities, a treasure hunt, and more, Sunday, April 17, from noon to 4 p.m.

The Annual California Wildflower Show is organized by the Natural Sciences Department of the Oakland Museum of California in collaboration with the California Native Plant Society, which monitors the collecting; the Jepson Herbarium of the University of California, Berkeley; the University of California Botanical Garden; and the Strybing Arboretum. It is presented with the support of the East Bay Municipal Utility District, the Natural Sciences Guild and members of the Oakland Museum of California.

For press information see www.museumca.org/press/

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