To appreciate wild things, one can climb every mountain and ford every stream. Or, as is my personal habit, simply traverse the same trail daily to brood about minuscule shifts in the landscape and note differences over time. It’s ablaze out there with familiar wildflowers, vibrating with colors that Candy Crush could only wish for.
But by digging below the surface, literally right down into the ground, one uncovers a special group of plants that are really on a high this season, and Wild Hyacinth, Wild Rhubarb, and Desert Death Camas are three of the more elusive beauties on parade. They’re geophytes - translated from the ancient Greek of botany as Earth Plants. Spending a good part of their lives hidden asleep in the soil, they bide their time in dormancy until roused by favorable conditions. Broadly put, geophytes are storage vessels that hold plant life in suspended animation underground, sheltered from adversity such as drought and fire. These cagey soil-dwellers paint a picture of resilience, stubbornness, and even danger.