Super Bloom at Catalina State Park

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Many have been seeing wildflowers, lots of them, all over Tucson. This is what experts are calling a “Super Bloom,” and it’s been four years since Arizona has seen anything like this. A super bloom is when a bunch of plants are flowering all at once. This is happening because of the rainfall Arizona had in the past months.

The most common types of wildflowers are desert marigolds, brittlebush, and globemallows, according to University of Arizona School of Natural Resources Professor Theresa Cummins. She said “There are amazing displays at many national and state parks and other natural areas and botanic gardens. But I'm also seeing great flowering displays along roadsides, in medians, and in abandoned lots! I love that plants are able to make the best of where their seeds land.”

At Catalina State Park, many visitors were out enjoying the wildlife and wildflowers earlier today. One visitor, Linda Davis, is an avid birdwatcher. She’s also a fan of different wildflowers like the desert chicory, and she couldn’t believe how many wildflowers she saw.

“There’s little daisies and brittlebush. There’s just all kinds of things, things I’ve never even seen before. There was something called creme cups and dandelions on the birding trail this morning,” said Davis.

Davis has known about the super bloom, but other out-of-state visitors only heard of it on the trail today. Stephanie Fryer was visiting family from Wisconsin and enjoyed the surprise.

“It’s my first time during the wildflower season so we’re really excited just to see it. We just found out about it today, this is exciting. Now the trail we were planning to go on is going to be even prettier than we were expecting,” said Fryer.

The state parks have pamphlets available with the names of wildflowers commonly found in Southern Arizona. They would like to remind visitors to not pick the flowers, but they are welcome to enjoy the sight.