[1] Spring has arrived in Chile, and even the desert is blossoming. A massive portion of the Atacama Desert, the driest nonpolar desert on Earth, has been covered in flowers after the El Nino weather pattern brought heavy rains to the region earlier this year. The unusually large amount of water allowed millions of seeds and bulbs to sprout and bloom, many of them after remaining dormant for decades.
[2] “It is a unique phenomenon; there are more than 200 plant species,” said Jorge Carabantes, head of the Protected Areas Department at the National Forest Corporation (CONAF). “This is a flowering event that is obviously extraordinary and unusual, very different from other blooms that occur elsewhere on the globe.”
[3] The Atacama lies between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes Mountains, stretching some 1,600km all the way down the northern coast of Chile. Flowering is common during the transition from winter to spring, but this year, the rocky, brownish dunes that make up the desert’s traditional landscape have turned into a vibrant, colourful carpet of wildflowers during a historic Desierto Florido, or “flowering desert”.
[4] Between July and August, Chile recorded record rainfall in several regions, with some levels never seen since records began in the 1950s. The heavy precipitation was driven by a “super El Nino”, a climate phenomenon that causes sharp rises in global temperatures and is becoming increasingly strong. “Since rainfall records began, these are the most significant figures in terms of volume,” explained biologist Cesar Pizarro, head of the Biodiversity Conservation Section at CONAF Atacama. “What has happened now has an origin, and it is called ‘super El Nino’.”
[5] The storms have caused flooding, havoc and devastation in several parts of Chile. In the north, they have also enabled the historic desert bloom, with an estimated coverage of some 17,000 sq km this year. This area is similar in size to the country’s largest and most populous area, the Santiago Metropolitan Region.
[6] According to CONAF projections, this is expected to be the most intense and extensive Desierto Florido since 1997. That is because, Pizarro said, the heavy rainfall activated the desert’s biological material, known as germ plasma. This includes seeds, bulbs and tubers, as well as the eggs of various invertebrates and reptiles.
[7] The result is a true visual spectacle featuring more than 200 species of plants and flowers. Red and yellow nanucas, purple rock purslane, white suspiros, orange terciopelos and the native garra de leon – one of the desert’s most iconic species – have transformed the hills, plains and ravines of the Atacama. “There are hills and mountain ranges where no greenery or flowers had been seen for more than 30 or 40 years,” Pizarro added. “This desert germ plasma can remain [dormant] for many years, even decades. The hills this year are the best example of that.”
Source: Associated Press, October 1
