Covered in more than 60,000 fresh flowers and other natural material, the float built by students at Cal Poly Pomona and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo won the Founder’s Trophy for the most beautiful built by volunteers from a community or organization. The 27-foot long yellow chameleon was nicknamed Heidi for her color-changing stripes.
To achieve the chameleons' bumpy reptilian texture, the students used more than 20,000 button mums, citrus and red onion. Their eyes were covered in a variety of dried material including blue corn, yellow split pea, mung beans, cranberry seeds, millet, Bougainvillea and statice. The tiered base held more than 10,000 roses and 8,000 gerber daisies. The plumeria were topped with coconut and strawflower.
