Have you heard about Punxsutawney Phil, the weather predicting ground hog? He has been indicted in Ohio for fraud because of his “misrepresentation of spring.” The indictment alleges that he acted with “prior calculation and design” to cause people to believe that spring would arrive early.
Of course, his handlers claim that poor Phil is being railroaded. “There are several defenses,” they claim, including the fact that, since Feb. 2, “there have been spring like temperature spikes. “
Exactly-spring like temperature spikes followed by winter like temperature dips. Or, two steps backward for every step forward. Historically, the rodent’s predictions are accurate only 30% of the time, so we have only ourselves to blame if we jumped for joy at his early spring prediction this year.
Cincinnati prosecutor Mike Gmoser doesn’t see it that way though, and is calling for the death penalty, citing “aggravating circumstances.” Here is a man who is obviously very sick of winter! I wonder what he’ll do about the National Climatic Data Center and the National Weather Service-who also called for an early spring.
This is what the Ashuelot River looked like on Saint Patrick’s Day, March 17th. Nice and spring-like.
The river was so happy to see some sunshine that it was chuckling and pretending to be the ocean.
Here is what the river looked like 2 days later on Tuesday, March 19th after about 9 inches of snow fell. (This shot is in color.) Oh well, the temperature is above freezing each day so it is all melting away again, slowly. Fortunately, I had spent some time in the woods before it snowed.
The dusty rose-pink leaves of our native heart leaf foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia) will soon turn green, but for now they really stand out among the brown leaves and snow on the forest floor. This plant loses its green color in the fall when other leaves are changing, but it hangs on to its leaves all winter, green or not. It gets its common name from the shape of its leaves and from the many small white flowers that look like foam.
Brocade Moss (Hypnum imponens) forms extensive mats and looks as if it has been embroidered on what it is growing on. This moss is easy to spot due to its greenish golden color along with yellow and orange highlights and rust colored stems. A close look at the small, overlapping leaves shows that they look like they have been braided along the stem. This moss likes moist areas.
Common gold speck lichen (Candelariella vitellina) grows just about anywhere, but I usually find it growing on parts of stones that don’t receive any direct rain. Some say its color resembles egg yolks and others say powdered mustard. It looks pale, sulfur yellow to me, and sometimes looks a little green. This is a crustose lichen which grows like a crust on its substrate.
Common gold speck lichen is easy to spot growing on stone walls. This picture shows how it grows in sheltered places that aren’t likely to receive any direct rain.
I found this golden moon glow lichen (Dimelaena oreina) growing on polished granite in full sun. It was small-no bigger than a dime-but noticeable because of the way the dark, disc shaped fruiting bodies (Apothecia) in the center shade into the greenish yellow outer edges. One unusual aspect of this lichen is its squamulose form. A squamulose lichen falls somewhere between the leafy foliose lichens and crusty crustose lichens and has “squamules,” which in this case are the tiny, curled lobes around its outer edges.
Native blue flag iris (Iris versicolor) shoots were green and growing along the river bank before the snow fell. This is a tough plant so it’s doubtful that snow will hurt it. The flowers have 3 sepals and 3 petals and are deep blue (sometimes purple) and showy with yellow or white highlights at the base of the sepals. This plant was very valuable medicinally to Native Americans and it is said that many tribes grew it close to their villages.
Last year I saw a maple tree with this circular pattern repeated in the bark all up and down the trunk. This year I found the same pattern on a different tree. After a year of searching books and websites I finally found a naturalist who identifies these circular patterns as normal markings on young red maple trees (Acer rubrum.) As the tree ages the circles are obscured by other lines and ridges. My question is: After decades of roaming in the forest why have I only seen this twice?
When it comes to thorns the honey locust tree (Gleditsia triacanthos) has to be king of the forest in this area. The three pronged thorns on these trees are hard enough to pierce before they break off. They can be 6 inches long or more under optimal conditions and are very sharp. During the Civil War Confederate soldiers used the thorns to hold their uniforms together, which led to the common name of Confederate pin tree.
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. ~ Carl Sagan
Thanks for coming by.
New Hampshire Garden Solutions 
You’ll actually find those circular patterns on many or most young red maples, just rarely as fully formed and clear. Explore the cracks and lines in the bark of the next red maple you see, and you’ll almost surely see little half-circles, or quarter-circles, just tiny fragments that could have become these perfect bullseyes but got interrupted.
Thanks very much Emily. I’ll most certainly do that.
Now I’m trying to think if I’ve noticed those circular patterns on Red Maples…
Nice photos of the Ashuelot- there’s something about rivers, I never tire of seeing pictures of them.
Everyone who comes to this blog seems to like rivers, so I keep taking pictures of them. I’d be willing to bet that you have seen those patterns on red maples-I’ve seen a couple more since doing this post.
Those are great river photos! Pretty!
If Phil is accurate 30% of the time he’s doing much better than the forecasters around here, including the National Weather Service.
Thanks Montucky. I know what you mean-I don’t think any of them do better than 30%
I loved you great photos. I’m so looking forward to when the snow melts in our orchard in the southern part of the state…there is still over a foot on the ground even with some sunny days.
Thank you Karen. Our snow has melted fast over the weekend, but it’s still deep enough in the woods to slow you down.
It’s interesting to me to find wild specimens of the stuff we have cultivated and planted in our gardens. Wild asparagus is a good example. I see it a lot on the side of the highway, but have never tried eating it.
I agree. One of the times that it really struck me was when I lived in florida, seeing what we grew as houseplants growing up tree trunks there. I see wild asparagus everywhere here, but I’ve never tried eating it either. I’m not a great lover of asparagus. Soon the ramps, or wild leeks, will appear. That’s another one I’ve never eaten!
Wonderful river pictures make me want to be there. The moon glow lichen I don’t think I have seen. Great pic of that too. Here is hoping that we don’t transition from winter weather to summer weather. I like spring…………
Thanks Grampy. I spend a lot of time at the river! I’ve never seen that lichen before either-I thought it was a beauty though. I’m hoping for a real spring this year too, but I have a feeling we’re going to wake up to summer one morning.
I’m fascinated by the circular pattern of the young red maple trees (and its rarity). I also love the shots of Ashuelot River.
The patterns in red maple bark have pestered me for a while now Melanie, so I was happy to finally find someone who knew what caused them. It seems like everybody likes that particular view of the river. It is taken for the walkway of a covered bridge.
That is a quality thorn.
That’s one way to describe it!
The lichens and mosses are very interesting. We are expecting a snowstorm tomorrow, oy!
I’m glad you like them. I hope you’re storm doesn’t drop too much snow!
Your blogs are always a breath of sunshine, whether the sun shines in them or not.
Thank you. That’s pretty high praise!
It was meant to be.
It seems that Punxsutawney Phil is only slightly less accurate than the National Climatic Data Center and the National Weather Service and their long range computer models. Sorry, I hauled my butt out of bed early this morning on the promise of mostly sunny skies, looking forward to a great day outdoors, only to look out my window and see the same heavy cloud cover that seems to never go away for more than an hour or two. Your post was very informative as always, and like you, I’ve only seen that circular pattern in the bark of maples a couple of times in my life. Maybe we need to pay more attention?
With my eyes always on the ground and yours to the sky, I’d say we both have a pretty good shot at missing those bark patterns. I thought you were up kind of early as usually ten o’clock seems to be your time. Too bad about the weather-we have partly sunny/mostly cloudy and cold here, but I’ll be heading out into it shortly. If I didn’t I’d be imagining all the things I missed seeing.
The gold speck lichen inyour photo looks very green to me.
As for wild vs cultivated, I have little interest in cultivated flowers. To me they are very different, as years of cross breeding have really changed them. That, after all, was the entire point of cross breeding.
I thought the lichen looked a little green in that shot. Maybe it’s just a trick of the light.
Cultivated plants have their place-our diets would be very different without them-but I like seeing native plants that aren’t quite so common.
Ha ha… My dad always said that if the groundhog sees his shadow there will be six more weeks of winter. If not, it will be a month and a half.
And he was right! And spring always came right around the third week of March, I’ll bet.
Great summer and winter pictures of the river only two days apart! Tiarella cordifolia is a garden flower this side of the world that is quite popular. I still classify plants as wild flowers or cultivated garden plants – its stupid, as if garden plants have been specially manufactured but it always amazes me to see plants growing in their natural habitat.
Thank you. I do the same thing, even though I know all garden flowers started out wild. We have woods full of foamflowers-they’re a real common sight.