They occur in Arizona below 3,600 feet, westward to California, Lower California, and north to Oregon. A plant of winter and early springtime, Goldfields takes advantage of winter moisture and cool spring weather to produce its flowers and mature its seeds. Thus it escapes the heat and drought of the desert by lying dormant in the seed stage until the moisture and cool temperatures of the following winter awaken it. In common with Goldpoppy and other annuals that mature their seeds before the summer heat descends upon the desert, Goldfields cannot correctly be called a “desert plant.” Actually these are plants of cooler climes which have found winter conditions in the desert ideal for their needs and have established themselves. These plants demonstrate effectively one method, that of escaping the heat and drought, by which plants have adapted themselves to survival in the desert. Like the winter tourist, they take advantage of ideal climatic conditions of winter and spring. Since, unlike the winter tourist, they cannot return north for the summer, they take the next best course and pass through the hot, dry period in the dormancy of the seed phase of their life cycles. YELLOW [Illustration: Enceliopsis argophylla] Common name: SUNRAY Arizona desert: (_Enceliopsis argophylla_). Bright yellow. April-June. California desert: (_Enceliopsis covillei_). Lemon-yellow. April-June. Sunflower family. Size: Perennial, 1 to 2½ feet tall. The large, solitary, coarse flower heads with their yellow petals make the Sunrays among the most impressive composites of the desert. Flowers rise on stout stems above a luxuriant growth of leaves that make the plants appear almost egotistical in their elegant arrogance. They are at their best in sandy washes and on dry slopes at elevations between 1,000 and 3,500 feet, often where other plants seem too hard pressed eking out an existence to produce the garish foliage and bloom achieved by the Sunray. YELLOW [Illustration: Geraea canescens] Common names: DESERT-SUNSHINE, DESERT-SUNFLOWER, DESERT GOLD, HAIRY-HEADED SUNFLOWER Arizona, California, and Texas deserts: (_Geraea canescens_). Yellow. January-June. Sunflower family. Size: An annual, 6 inches to 2 feet tall. One of the showiest of the Sunflowers. Desert-sunflowers often form sweet-scented gardens of luxuriant bloom along roadsides and in sandy basins early in the spring. Its seeds form a dependable source of food for small rodents, especially Pocket Mice, which store them in quantities. Wild bees and Hummingbird Moths are attracted to the fragrant flowers.