Where to See Wildflowers - Yosemite National Park (U.S. National Park Service) Yosemite is a wildflower enthusiast’s paradise, where blossoms are found most of the year. The park’s 11,000-foot range in elevation—from 2,000 feet on the west to 13,000 on the east—provides a phenomenal variety of growing conditions. Its location in the central Sierra Nevada makes it a crossroads for plant species that have migrated over the millennia from the Pacific coast, Great Basin, southern deserts, and northern mountains. The result of this mix of migrants is an extremely rich flora of 1,450 species with 25 percent of California’s native plants represented in the park. In this flora are many genera, such as Mimulus (monkeyflower) that has a large number of species represented in Yosemite. Some Mimulus, such as the Kellogg’s monkeyflower, only reside at the lowest park elevations, while others, like the tiny Sukdorf’s monkeyflower, only appear in the high country. Yosemite is home to flowers common in other places, such as the rosy sedum—a small succulent found across the northern parts of the world—and to uncommon flora, such as the Yosemite woolly sunflower only found in the park’s region. No matter where you go in the park, different species of lupines, paintbrushes, buckwheats, and other genera are to be found. See a Yosemite National Park botanist in the 'Study the Scientist' video series describe his job (4 minutes 23 seconds).