A Flowering Desert
Despite the record-breaking dryness in the Atacama, every several years during the spring season in the Southern Hemisphere, parts of the desert are covered in color as flowers burst seemingly from nowhere. The desert experiences a phenomenon known as “desierto florido”—flowering desert—around once every five to seven years between September and November.
During this time, around 60 miles (100 kilometers) of the desert is covered by more than 200 species of flowers. These flowers have evolved to be able to lie dormant in the soil for years as seeds, waiting for a particularly rainy year to flourish.
