Friday, April 29, 2011

the first day for canada mayflower, sugar maple, chokecherry, primrose

Since yesterday’s post had zero pictures, I’m giving you a double dose today.
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ALL the lilac buds seem to have popped – even the laggards.
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Sea o’ myrtle (Vinca minor). That’s a forsythia in the background.
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The primrose (Primula vulgaris) just bloomed today.
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Cheerful little bugger, innit?
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The unidentified-pretty-in-pink Playtex tampon applicator flowers are still lovely…
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…unlike the wild ginger flower (Asarum canadense), which by the way, is not related to the tasty ginger we eat.
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Remember how I thought it looked a little carnivorous? See the insect on the right side? Heh heh! If anything, that guy’s a pollinator.
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Ferns continue to open up…
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Onwards to the trees. Today, sugar maple (Acer saccharum) buds started to open up.
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Isn’t this wild? That’s a leaf, all neatly folded up. Surely some of the buds will have flowers – today, I only noticed leaves.
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Beech buds are not yet opening, but they are HUGE. Don’t believe me?
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This one’s the size of my thumb.
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Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana) buds – boom, open, bam. Some buds are for leaves…
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…and some are for flowers.
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Witchhazel buds don’t so much open, as unfold. Their buds are naked, meaning, there are no protective scales. You can see those are leaves, right? They just need to fluff out a little. Today, they look green for the first time. And yeah, those are flowers, but not new ones. They flower in the winter.
And now for the gray birch (Betula populifolia) report. Oh, by the way, the reason I stick the scientific names in here is for the hordes of people who find this blog via searches for these species names. It really does happen – I get hits on this blog from all over. Most folks don’t stick around for long – as wonderful as I am, all they want is my flower and bud porn (insert heavy sigh here). Jeez, stick to the topic, Sarah. OK, first up, here’s a bud opening up today – see the wee little leaves?
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Those are definitely leaves. I STILL don’t understand what that fuscia red stuff is for. Maybe…maybe it was just an exuberant “get ready, world!”
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A wildflower called Canada mayflower (Maianthemum canadense) JUST came up this morning. How do I know? See the specks of soil on the leaf? It was raining yesterday. If this leaf had been here yesterday, it would be clean. You can see a few more of them in the background, on the left.
Remember the blue cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides)? How the other day, it was blue, stem to leaf to flower? Yesterday, I noticed the leaves were greenish-blue – today, they’re green. And all the flowers are open!
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Somebody’s nibbling on the trillium (Trillium erectum). See the top center? Chomp chomp, nom, nom.
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And now for a different kind of fern…the fuzzy ones… I’m lousy at fern ID, maybe that can be a summer project…
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This is a willow (Salix something) that I just had to capture, because it just looks all blown to hell – almost like a fistful of clover sprouts. Huh.
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And now…
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Daffodils! Don’t they look like spectators at an event!
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