With wildflowers popping up along our West Coast, we thought to take a look at other places around the world where this also occurs. The truth is that the carpet of colour that gets rolled out every year on our doorstep is one of the world’s floral phenomena (and maybe its most impressive).
There are places all over the world that draw tourists for their buds – Keukenhof in the Netherlands for its tulips, Japan for its cherry blossoms and France for its lavender, for example. Maybe we can also include ‘peepers’ in that list: people who travel to view autumn leaves change colour.
But wildflowers, with their haphazard sprouting and natural variation, carry with them more mystery and wonder, more pop and crackle. These are the six best places in the world to see them.
1. Perth, Western Australia
Credit: Sean Blocksidge
From June to November, more than 12,000 species of wildflowers carpet the state of Western Australia, 60% of which are found nowhere else. Fringed lilies, pepper and salt shrub, and starflower grow spectacularly in the wild there. To see carpets of pink, yellow or white everlastings, low-lying wreath leschenaultia and the taller mulla mulla is truly a treat.
Orchids have adapted to Western Australia’s hot dry summers by staying dormant during the non-growing season and saving their nutrients to unveil themselves after winter rains (typically around August). In September and October, more than 100 orchid varieties can be seen in the region over just a few days, including spider and pink fairy orchards, as well as native wildflowers like Australian Blue Bell, swamp bottlebrush, and cottonheads.
2. Valley of Flowers National Park, India
Credit: Hindu Times
On the border of Nepal and Tibet, The Valley of Flowers in Northern India comes alive full of blooming flowers right after the first monsoon rain usually in July. There are over 300 alpine flower variations to see and when you combine those blooms with the vistas of valleys and mountain peaks you understand the beauty of this place. Spread over 87.5 sq km, the biodiversity hotspot is known for its scenic beauty comprising alpine shrubs and meadows, milky-white streams, snow-clad peaks and pristine air.
3. Atacama Desert, Chile
Credit: Mario Ruiz
Officially the driest place on earth, the Atacama Desert is one of the last places you’d expect to see a burst of colourful life. Typically it only occurs there every four to seven years, so you have to be pretty lucky to time it right. But if you do, you’ll find desert sands and hillsides colored with purple, white, blue, and yellow flowers. In 2017, there was a particularly beautiful bloom after some very unexpected rainfall.
4. Lake Tekapo, New Zealand
Credit: Chris Gin
Another one of the best places to catch spring flowers bloom is Lake Tekapo in New Zealand where huge vibrant fields of lupins appear along the lakeshore. The lupins, which are actually considered an invasive species and a weed, range from pinks to lavenders to white, reds, and purples. They create a perfect foreground for the glistening lake and the Southern Alps behind it. This “weed” is anything but to would-be photographers and travellers who come from all over to see it in bloom, from late November to early January.
5. Antelope Valley, California
Credit: Richard Vogel
In recent years, California’s Central Valley has experienced a ‘Super Bloom’. Heavy rain after years of drought led to an explosion of wildflowers as all the seeds that were lying dormant came into bloom. Antelope Valley is the most consistent poppy-bearing land in California, while swaths of yellow and purple coreopsis and phacelia,desert asters, lupins and sand verbena also come into bloom. The Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in California is also a good destination for flowers, such as desert sunflowers and lilies, brown-eyed primroses and pincushions.
6. Cape Wildflowers, South Africa
Credit: Matthew Sterne
Of course, now that we’ve traversed the world we can’t gloss over our own magnificent flowers. Did you know that the Cape Floristic Region accounts for less than 0.5% of the continent of Africa but holds over 20% of its flora? That’s in reference to the 9,000 fynbos species. The flowers we’re focusing on are the daisies and such that spring up from Namaqualand down to Cape Town. Darling, the West Coast National Park, Biedouw Valley, Nieuwoudtville and the Namaqua National Park are the best places to see them. Knowing exactly when and in what manner the daisies will appear every year is a guessing game although many believe it has something to do with what the rains are like in April.
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