Golden Linanthus (Linanthus aureus) is a low-growing, spring-blooming, annual wildflower with 5-lobed flowers, tiny leaves, and slender, threadlike stems. Golden Linanthus grows in dry, sandy or grassy areas, and it can carpet the ground in favorable years.

I discovered a few of these brilliant golden wildflowers still blooming in a sandy wash here in Tucson in late May, but these Golden Linanthus are not likely to last much longer because the temperature was 107 °F (41.7 °C) that day and 109 °F (42.8 °C) the next. Golden Linanthus usually blooms from March through the beginning of June here depending on the temperature.

Hot summer weather arrives in Tucson during May, and our spring wildflowers will rapidly shrivel in the blazing heat. People and animals here become more crepuscular during our hottest time of the year in late May and June, and you will see people exercising and animals hunting or foraging around dawn and dusk. To deal with our worst desert heat, plants either die, go dormant, or just suffer through using whatever survival mechanisms they possess.