When does desert palafox bloom in California?

Most often in May. Across 2,589 dated, research-grade observations of Palafoxia arida in California, the flowering season runs roughly January to December.

Peak May In flower 2,589 Examined 2,787 State California

Flowering 2,589 in flower of 2,787 examined

92%

93%

95%

88%

100%

73%

70%

72%

88%

92%

95%

Proportion of examined Palafoxia arida in California in flower, by month
Month	In flower	Examined	Share	95% interval
Jan	475	516	92%	89% to 94%
Feb	536	578	93%	90% to 95%
Mar	780	818	95%	94% to 97%
Apr	147	167	88%	82% to 92%
May	33	33	100%	90% to 100%
Jun	11	15	73%	48% to 89%
Jul	1	2	too few examined
Aug	7	10	70%	40% to 89%
Sep	13	18	72%	49% to 88%
Oct	98	112	88%	80% to 92%
Nov	179	194	92%	88% to 95%
Dec	309	324	95%	93% to 97%

Peak flowering in May. Each bar is the share of Palafoxia arida in California observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 2,589 of 2,787 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. One month has fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for it. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.wt38fd.

What this is, and what it is not

This is a record of when people in California found Palafoxia arida in flower, not a forecast. It is computed only from observations made in California, so it is not the species’ global average dragged onto a map: the same plant flowers on different dates in different places, and that is the entire point of the page.

It will not tell you what your particular plant will do this year. Bloom time moves with the season, with altitude, and with the weather, and a warm February pulls everything forward. We publish the distribution and the sample size, and we refuse to draw a month that too few people examined.

The plant

Palafoxia arida

desert palafox

Sourcesevery claim on this page

GBIF (iNaturalist Research-grade Observations). Dated flowering annotations in California. Every record achieved iNaturalist quality grade Research, which is applied upstream at export. 10.15468/dl.wt38fd. Retrieved 2026-07-14.
World Flora Online Plant List. The accepted name. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.