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Allionia choisyi, annual windmills, is blooming in Silver City. It's pretty inconspicuous, but really beautiful up close!

Asclepias quinquedentata (Slimpod Milkweed) is blooming in the pinyon juniper woodland near Pinos Altos now. First time I've seen this one in bloom!

Pincushion cacti are blooming big time in Pinos Altos now! (Escobaria vivipara)

Carex agrostoides clumps surrounding a small pool below a rock header at Lower Gallinas Canyon today. It is still very dry on the Black Range.

I hiked five miles on the Tadpole Ridge Trail today, a recently burned area. Still, there were wildflowers to be seen!

Karen and I drove up to the top of Signal Peak this morning to do a bit of mossing. But I couldn't help but take some pix of the great flowering plants still putting on a show up there!

Our prickly pear cacti don't seem to notice we're having a drought. This one is Opuntia phaeacantha, brown spined prickly pear. The pollinators love it.

Early-bloomer cactus (Echinomastus intertextus) is already in bloom in the Tres Hermanas south of Deming, New Mexico. We also saw mustards and borages blooming there. Spring has sprung in the desert!

Lots Caryophyllaceae are blooming right now around Pinos Altos, New Mexico. This one has a lot of people confused-- it's very glandular in the inflorescence and has round, opposite leaves-- it's Fendler's Drymary (Drymaria fendleri).

With everything in bloom, it's easy to miss the rarer species out there. I visited the Gomez Peak trail near Little Walnut picnic ground today in Silver City. There are lots of Dalea species up along the trail, but this one in particular caught my eye-- Dalea exigua. It's an annual with an angled stem and leaves with 3-5 leaflets that are bristle tipped at the end rather than rounded. According to Allred, it's known from "very few collections" in New Mexico, only in Grant and Catron counties.

Escobaria vivipara is blooming in our area now!