Science is Fun Fridays!


The Atacama Desert in Chile is known as the driest place on Earth.

But after an especially rainy winter, it is experiencing a bloom.

The rain was enough to activate bulbs and latent seeds that were hidden beneath the surface for years.  According to the National Forestry Corporation, it may have awakened a seed bank that had been dormant for a long time.

The above includes violet guanaco paw and white huille, but there are more than 200 species expected to appear, many of them endemic, creating a "true chromatic mosaic of ecological and scientific value."

And it is expansive.





 

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