Wildflowers in bloom at Lost Dutchman State Park in Arizona, USA

© Tim Fitzharris/Minden Picture

The desert in bloom. March of the flowers

Our photo today captures the blaze of colour from California brittlebush, poppies and a variety of other flowers that signal the arrival of spring to Lost Dutchman State Park, just east of Phoenix in the US state of Arizona. March is usually when the wildflowers in the deserts of Arizona begin to bloom, and Lost Dutchman is a great place to see them. The park is near the Superstition Mountains – a place closely associated with the tale of Jacob Waltz, a German immigrant who, in the late 19th century, claimed to have found a hidden gold mine in the Superstition range. Waltz’s story so ignited the public’s imagination that the park was named for his ‘lost’ fortune. (He became known as the 'Dutchman' from the word 'Deutsch' for German.)