The driest desert on Earth just bloomed with 200 species

Chile's Atacama Desert, usually the driest place on Earth, has burst into what may be its largest flowering ever recorded. Roughly 200 species are blooming, some in areas where no flowers have appeared since before the new millennium. This year's Super El Niño dumped record rainfall through July and August, letting water seep deep enough to reach seeds that normally escape seasonal rains. Some had waited dormant under the sand for decades. "This is a natural seed bank, a dormant archive that becomes a living one with the rains," said Moisés Grimberg, administrator of Llanos de Challe National Park. The window is short, roughly two to three months, so scientists at the Initihuasi Seed Bank are not just taking photos. Ana Sandoval and her colleagues are collecting seeds for future research. The bloom has drawn reptiles, insects and bats, plus the occasional guanaco, a relative of the llama, passing through to see what all the fuss is about.