California town hopes to put tourists off the scent as another super bloom looms

Lake Elsinore was flooded with visitors in 2019 when wildflowers erupted over its landscape; this year, it doesn’t want them

California’s lush hillsides and verdant valleys may soon be awash with color, as hints that another botanical bonanza is budding after the state was doused with rain. Soaked soils could help set off another super bloom – a spectacle of wildflowers that coat the deserts and grasslands in vibrant hues of orange, purple and yellow.

But the possibility of another eruption in blossoms has some officials bracing. The flowers set off a frenzy four years ago when heavy winter rains coated a Lake Elsinore canyon in wild poppies. The town 60 miles (96km) south-east of Los Angeles was flooded by tourists, who crushed the delicate flowers and unleashed chaos upon the small city.