Desert Crocus

This weekend I went looking for crocuses in the desert with another student, Efrat. We had been looking for a while, and not seen any, but she had a memory of a particular wadi (dried river bed) that the walls above them had been filled with them a few years ago. After some looking we managed to find it-- and it was full of the flowers again! An amazing sight--bright yellow flowers along rocky walls with very little other vegetation. Everytime we would round a corner and see another group we would get huge grins on our faces.

It reminded me of looking for crocuses when I was young. Every spring my Mom would take us out the the Qu'applle Valley in Saskatchewan after the snow melted to look for crocuses. It was the first sign of spring for us, and it was so exciting because you knew that things were going to start growing soon and there is a huge sense of renewal. Efrat said that here the crocus is the first sign of winter--and it seems very much the same....you go looking for them, and are excited about these first signs of life peeking out from the desert again.


This is the area we went looking for the crocuses. They grow along the sides of the Wadi's, in the ridges formed by the rock.


Efrat and the crocuses


They grow fairly clumped in very little soil




Very bright yellow flowers peeking out from between rocks