Around this time each year, thousands make the pilgrimage to the Antelope Valley to see California poppies shining in the fields around Anne Aldrich's Lancaster home.
"There are fields of orange, just like in 'The Wizard of Oz' when you first spot the Emerald City," Aldrich said.
But not in 2007, as Southern California is poised to experience its driest year on record.
"We don't have poppies this year. This is about the worst we've seen," she said. "It's desert-brown."
The relentlessly dry weather has made this a spring like no other across the region, wreaking havoc on the ecosystem.
Downtown Los Angeles has recorded less than 4 inches of rain since July 1 -- less than a quarter of normal. The region was hit Monday with another round of high heat, low humidity and dry winds, prompting officials to issue a red flag warning for brush fires. (It will continue through tonight.)
The effects of the prolonged dryness can be seen and felt all around. Seasonal ponds are cracked dry, leaving no haven for some frog eggs or fairy shrimp to hatch. Some flower-dependent butterflies are staying dormant for another season.
Plants aren't bearing berries; some oak trees aren't sprouting acorns. Bees are behaving strangely.
The problem is apparent in Ventura County, where ranchers are selling their cattle early or thinking about moving them to other states. Ranchers' lands, starved of rainwater, have not grown the natural grasses key to feeding cattle through the spring and summer.
John Harvey, a Ventura County ranch owner for 30 years, said he will have to sell half his herd of 350 mother cows by summer.
"This is the worst year I can ever remember," said Harvey, president of the Ventura County Cattlemen's Assn.
A nature hike through the parched hills of Griffith Park offers few of the usual spring blooms.
"Look at how miserable they are, these seeds," said longtime ranger Giuseppe Pira, pointing to the shriveled berries of a California toyon shrub, which normally should be plump and green in the spring.
Many of the plants in the park show signs of stress. Leaves droop and seed pods are wilted. Even if a shrub's leaves are green, they are brittle to the touch.
Because there has been so little rain, Pira said, dust is sticking to the leaves, giving them a sickly look and making plants more susceptible to disease.
