Sometimes you can lose yourself in a flower’s beauty, especially when it’s the first crocus of the season.
How can you not have a spring in your step and a smile on your face after seeing something like this?
The male (staminate) flowers of speckled alder (Alnus incana) have just started opening, making the forest edges look as if someone has hung jewels from the bushes. Soon they will release their pollen and start a new generation of alders.
Male speckled alder catkins viewed up close reveal brown and purple scales. These scales are on short stalks and surround a central axis. There are three flowers beneath each scale, each with a lobed calyx cup and three to five stamens with anthers covered in yellow pollen.
The tiny female (pistillate) catkins of speckled alder consist of scales that cover two flowers, each having a pistil and a scarlet style. Since speckled alders are wind pollinated the flowers have no petals because petals would hinder the process and keep male pollen grains from landing on the female flowers. These female catkins will eventually become the cone-like, seed bearing structures (strobiles) that are so noticeable on alders.
I’ve known for a long time that the female flowers of the American hazelnut (Corylus americana) were among the smallest I’d seen, but I wondered exactly how small. To find out I measured the tiny bud that the hair-like, scarlet pistils protrude from with the same vernier calipers I use to measure precision machine parts. I found that the bud diameter is almost the same as a single strand of spaghetti, or about 4 thousandths of an inch (.004).
The catkins full of male (staminate) American hazelnut (Corylus americana) flowers don’t have the brown and purple scales that speckled alder catkins do. They are longer and more golden in color, but they work the same way as the alder catkins described previously. They seem to glow in the late afternoon sun.
Forsythia buds are showing some color. It’s a very common shrub and it won’t be long before nearly every street in town shouts spring, thanks to its cheery yellow blooms.
The witch hazels at a local park have finally completely unfurled their strap-like petals. I’ve shown these flowers at various stages of development over the last month and have been calling the shrub “Vernal” witch hazel, which isn’t correct. Our native vernal witch hazel (Hamamelis vernalis) only grows in the southern and central United States. I’m guessing that the shrub pictured, even though it does bloom in spring, is most likely a Japanese witch hazel (Hamamelis japonica), because it is extremely fragrant.
If you don’t mind getting down on your stomach in the kind of swampy ground that they like to grow in you can sometimes get a peek inside the spathe of a skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) to see its flowers. A spathe is just a modified leaf or bract which kind of wraps around itself and protects the flower bud. As the plant matures a gap opens in the spathe to let in the insects which will pollinate the flowers. The one on the right has a good sized hole that the lens of my Panasonic Lumix might just fit into.
Well, the lens fit the hole in the skunk cabbage spathe but the flash didn’t but luckily there was a broken one nearby that allowed a peek at the spadix with all of its flowers-something very few people ever get to see. Each flower on the spadix has four yellowish sepals. The male stamens grow up through the sepals and release their pollen before the female style and pistil grow out of the flower’s center to catch any pollen that visiting insects might carry from other plants.
The scattered rock posy lichen (Rhizoplaca subdiscrepans) isn’t a flower but it has both the name and beauty of one, so I let it have a place here. This lichen keeps its pale orange fruiting bodies (apothecia) year round, so seeing it in winter is like finding a flower in the snow.
When the female flowers of red maples (Acer rubrum) just start to poke out of their protective bud scales they remind me of female American hazelnut flowers, though they are bigger and much easier to see.
As I was admiring the red color of the female red maple flowers a robin flew down just a few feet away and began kicking up dead leaves as if he wanted to show me what the color red was really all about. Finally satisfied that he had been admired too, off he flew. My color finding software actually sees more brown than red on his breast in this photo, but he doesn’t have to know that. Let him strut.
The spring came suddenly, bursting upon the world as a child bursts into a room, with a laugh and a shout and hands full of flowers. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Thanks for coming by.
Such lovely signs of re-birth 🙂 Have a wonderful weekend and Happy Easter to you and yours.
Thank you. I hope you and your family will do the same.
🙂 I went up to White Mountains today to get out of the house and it was so nice to get into the woods 🙂
I’ll bet it was. It must have been a little cool up there though.
Not bad a slight breeze we did not see the sun till we were eastbound and down on 4 and it was setting in our mirrors 🙂 I will share the photos here soon 🙂 Pretty day headed out your way today to walk some trails and swing a metal detector 🙂
It’s not bad out there. I just got back from hiking out to a waterfall. I hope you find something!
I was on a road to a waterfall in Keene but boyfriend said he could go further so the pup and I never made it the whole way 😦
If it was an old abandoned road it was probably Beaver Brook falls. I was just there the other day. It was really roaring.
Yes still roaring when we were there at the time that man got hurt at school we left the woods and the power was off 😦
Great photos! Looks like your spring has now overtaken ours. (We hit 22 degrees last night).
Thanks Montucky. They say we’re going to be a lot cooler too by the end of the week, so that’ll slow things down a bit.
Beautiful photographs. Your spring seems to have suddenly burst forth too. It seems not long ago it was all ice and snow. I particularly like the rock post lichen. Amelia
Thank you. Yes, spring always seems to happen quite fast here once it warms up. Sometimes it seems like we skip spring entirely and go right into summer.
The rock posy lichen is one of my favorites.
Once again, beautiful photographs! 🙂
Thanks Michael!
Of course you have to love the tommies but the close ups of the catkins are really fascinating.
Thanks! There are so many fascinating things out there that it’s impossible to show them all.
I was almost as pleased to see your crocuses as you were because I was feeling bad that we had so many spring flowers and you just has snow. The inside of the skunk cabbage was interesting and I’ll be looking closer at the hazels from now on.
I thought spring was late this year but after looking back at last year’s post I see that some things are actually blooming earlier. Maybe it’s just the winter we suffered through. Those hazelnut flowers are very hard to see, but worth looking for.
Some great photographs of very tricky subjects here. Another eye opener for your readers.
Thank you. It sounds like people are getting interested and going out to see for themselves, and that’s great.
I think that you have probably had quite a noticeable influence on many of the blogs that I read and certainly you have on mine.
I’m glad to hear that. The more people enjoy nature the less likely they are to harm it. I hope.
I love the quote too! Everyone here in southwestern Ontario is out today, some digging in soil despite that is still holding the frost, some laying out on the exposed wintered grass soaking up the sun and warmer air, many in shorts and bare shoulders despite the breezes and myself, planting half of my pansies outside and keeping half safe indoors to enjoy for awhile. The birds are singing, I think it was frogs I heard down by the marsh and rabbits are everywhere….the antics of the flying hops of the rabbits are fun…..aw…finally .I’m looking for the buds and such too on my walks….crocus, snowdrops, some early scilla( I think that is what they are)…
That quote is a great way to describe spring, I thought. I’m glad spring is happening in Canada too. They say we might hit 80 degrees Monday but after that it’s back to reality with a forecast of only 24 degrees for Wednesday night. I hope you’ll find plenty of flowers on your walks. Don’t forget the trees bloom too!
Another wonderful post, your photographs are so detailed and the information you share so informative, I love that you measured the Hazelnut flower, I don’t think I have ever seen one before. And the inside of the skunk cabbage was a treat to see.
Thank you Julie. Yes, my curiosity got the better of me and I had to take the calipers to the hazelnut. They are so very small that you have to look up and down each branch carefully until you find one. They look like tiny red hairs sticking out of the top of the bud. I’m glad you liked the skunk cabbage too. That makes crawling around in a swamp a little less painful!
You sure can pack a lot of beauty, learning and interest in one blog. Not to mention the things you have that we don’t. Needless to say, I enjoyed!
Thank you. That’s why I can only do 2 per week! I’m glad you enjoy them.
Reblogged this on Good Morning and commented:
In my mind, all of this is evidence of a divine. “To everything a purpose under…”
Thank you for another re-blog. I agree.
These are wonderful macros! Now I am even more impressed with your little Lumix camera. The buds are just about to burst open here, finally.
Thanks Sue. That Panasonic Lumix surprises me nearly every time I use it. There seems to be little limit as to how close you can get. I’m glad spring is happening in Minnesota too.
Reblogged this on Dawn of Divine Rays and commented:
Spring is here .. yay!!
I’ll second that! Thank you for the re-blog Agnes.
You’re very welcome, NHGS – Wishing you and yours, a beautiful spring to explore. Namaste.
My few attempts at macro photography this spring has resulted in my having even more admiration for your skills in bringing us such great photos of the part of nature that many people miss.
Now, I’m going to try to put the information that you share in every post to use, and find a few of these flowers myself. It’s a wonderful spring day here, I hope that you’re having the same!
Thanks Jerry. Macro photography has its own set of challenges but I like it because it lets me see things that I can’t see with these tired old eyes. If fact, when I take a lot of these photos I am literally “shooting blind’ and can’t see the details until I see the photo.
We’ve started off foggy here but it’s supposed to burn off and be a beauty. I’m glad you’re seeing some good weather too.
Great set of photos, I have just started looking and recording Trees this year, they are all around us and I have come to realise how little I new about them. I have been amazed with the tiny flowers some trees have and how brightly coloured they are, for years I will have walked past them and not seen the wonder of a new Larch cone or how red a Red popular catkin is. I love the photo of the Witch Hazel, not seen one yet. Thank you again for your posts, as it gives me ideas what to look for..
Amanda x
Thank you Amanda. Many trees have beautiful flowers but as you say, they are so small that nobody ever sees them. It wasn’t until I started to really look at things that I realized how much of nature we miss. Witch hazels are common here. Our native plants like to grow on the banks of rivers and ponds. They have unusual but very fragrant blossoms.
Fantastic shots, Allen! Really, just wonderful images! The Skunk cabbage spathe makes me feel like I’m on another planet! 🙂
Thank Melanie. Those skunk cabbages are among the stranger things we can see out there. And they really do smell like a skunk!
Thanks for the interesting post. It’s hard to find progression photos showing the development of flowers, especially in trees. Did you ever read “Seeing Trees” by Nancy Ross Hugo? Your treatment of a subject reminds me of hers – detailed information along with close-up photos but written in an entertaining way. M 🙂
You’re welcome Marie. I agree, it is hard to find progression photos of flowers blooming. I haven’t heard of that book but I’ve written it down and will look for it. Thank you for the tip. It sounds like an interesting one.
I love sharing your walks. The photography is stunning and the descriptions are both informative and fascinating. And, I am always anxious to read the lovely poetic quotes at the end of each post. I would write more, but you’ve inspired me to put the laptop down and get outdoors–gotta run. Thank you!
Thank you Deb, it’s nice of you to say so. This blog is here to inspire people to get outside and see these things for themselves, so it’s great to hear that it’s working!
Love the quote! I’m so happy that Spring is springing! My crocuses seemed to erupt over night. Not there one morning and in full bloom the next morning. Although all seasons have their beauty – nothing is more rejuvenating than Spring.
Thanks Laura. I like that quotation too-it seems to fit spring so well. I’ve been watching the spot where these crocus grow in Keene and that’s exactly what happened-not there one day and blooming the next.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge. A wonderful look into world that most of us pass right by. The witch hazel flower is amazing!
You’re welcome. It’s true-many people live their entire lives without seeing some of these things. Witch hazel is a very unusual flower. Our native plants bloom in late fall, October and November here.
Thanks for all those beautiful signs of spring especially the crocuses.
You’re welcome Susan. It’s great to finally see a crocus or two.