Here are some of the things I’ve seen in woods, parks and yards this week.
The skunk cabbage flowers (Symplocarpus foetidus) just shrugged off the recent snow and melted their way through it. These plants use cellular respiration to produce energy in the form of heat, and can raise the air temperature around themselves enough to melt snow and ice. The process is called thermogenesis, and very few plants have this ability. In spite of being able to fuel their own furnaces, these plants don’t seem to be in any hurry to grow leaves. You can see a small one just starting between the two flowers.
Amber jelly fungus (Exidia recisa) looks like cranberry jelly to me, but the software I use to cheat color blindness sees more brown than anything else. This fungus likes to grow on willow trees and is also called willow brain fungus. It also grows on alders and poplars, and that is where I usually find it.
The plum colored bud scales of red maples (Acer rubrum) have opened enough to let the tomato red flower buds begin warming in the sun. It won’t be too much longer before we see the bright red blossoms dangling from this tree’s branches.
The oval, flat, pointy buds of American elm (Ulmus americana) also have plum colored scales, but what they hide inside is much browner than that of red maple. Before Dutch elm disease wiped out most of our elms in the 50s and 60s Keene, New Hampshire had so many huge old elms that it was called the Elm City. Many businesses in the area still use Elm City in their names, even though most of the trees are now gone. There are a few hardy survivors widely scattered about the region though, and I visited one of them to get this picture. Elm flowers are beautiful enough to warrant a return trip.
The buds of shagbark hickory (Carya ovate) won’t win any beauty contests but they are slowly unfurling themselves, just as the earth is slowly warming and awakening to welcome spring. There is no doubt that nature is turning to a new season, whether we are watching or not.
Speaking of awakening-the scilla (scilla siberica) bulbs that I planted 2 years ago are just starting to show some color. It’ll be nice to see their cheery blue blossoms under the honeysuckles at the edge of the forest again. These bulbs are easily confused with glory of the snow (Chionodoxa) because the differences are so slight (flattened stamens) that even botanists have trouble telling them apart. It is for that reason that many botanists think the two plants should be classified as one.
We’re lucky to have a cornelian cherry (Cornus mas) in a local park and I was happy to see it showing some color. This very unusual, almost unknown shrub isn’t a cherry at all-it is a in the dogwood (Cornus) family and blooms very early in the spring before the leaves appear. It hails from Europe and Asia and has beautiful yellow, 4 petaled flowers that grow in large clusters. This is a rarely seen, under-used plant that would be welcome in any garden.
Also getting ready to bloom was this boxwood shrub (Buxus sempervirens.) Though the buds are white, soon small greenish yellow flowers will line each stem at the leaf axils. This shrub is very common and is often used for hedges.
Rough bullet galls on oaks are caused by the oak rough bullet gall wasp (Disholcaspis quercusmamma.) According to the Iowa State University Extension Service, in the fall the adult wasp chews its way out of the gall and lays its eggs in the dormant terminal buds of the oak host tree. In the spring when the egg hatches and the white, legless larvae feeds the oak tree will grow around it, completely enclosing it in a gall. The larva feeds on the inside of the gall, becomes an adult, and the cycle repeats itself. These galls are found only on bur oak, (Quercus macrocarpa,) and swamp white oak (Quercus bicolor.) The galls don’t hurt the tree, but they do excrete a sticky substance which attracts ants and bees.
In this case the cycle didn’t get to repeat itself, because a bird pecked its way into this goldenrod gall and ate the fly larva it found inside. If the larva had escaped the gall on its own the evidence would be a tiny, round hole-not the large, ragged gash seen in the photo. Chickadees, woodpeckers, and even some beetles eat the larva of the goldenrod gall fly (Eurosta solidaginis.)
I went back to visit the one scattered rock posy lichen (Rhizoplaca subdiscrepans) that I know of in this area to see what affect the recent cold and snow had on it. It doesn’t seemed to have changed at all since I saw it last month, except maybe for a few more flat, pale orange fruiting bodies (Apothecia.) It grows on granite in full sun.
Only with a leaf
can I talk of the forest. ~Visar Zhiti
Thanks for coming by.
So many beautiful details! Great photography, Allen. I find the process of thermogenesis of the skunk cabbage flower absolutely fascinating.
Thank you Melanie. There are other plants that can make their own heat, but skunk cabbage is the only native wildflower that I know of with this ability. It really is fascinating!
Hi Allen, boy, what a winter we have had over here in Mason. I hope you survived. Started my peppers, tomatoes, and basil. Which brings to mind, fiddleheads. If you could let me know when they are ready, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanx Allen for all the great photos.
Hi Michael. I thought I’d be hearing from you soon! I was just thinking of you the other day in fact as I wandered around on the banks of the Ashuelot. I haven’t seen any fiddleheads of any ferns yet but when I do they’ll appear here, so keep reading! They’re going to be a lot later than they were last year.
An interesting and informative post accompanied by some excellent photos.
Thank you Sandy!
I loved your photos, not just because they are technically good photos, but because they are so much the first steps of spring.
Thank you Charlie, I’ve been looking everywhere for spring!
Excellent and informative as usual- the Amber Jelly Fungus is really eye-catching!
Thanks! I like that amber jelly too. I don’t see as much of it as I do the others.
I loved the post. I can’t tell you how many Downy Woodpeckers I’ve seen attacking galls to get at the larvae inside. I know so little about lichens, but I intend to work on that…among 300 other things!
Thank you Jo Ann. I think you’re the first person I’ve talked to who has actually seen a woodpecker on a goldenrod gall. I know what you mean-there are just so many things in nature to see that sometimes it seems a bit overwhelming. And soon the wildflowers will be blooming!
I find myself scrolling up and down and up and down … and up and down. It’s all so interesting and colorful.
That’s what is so great about nature!
Looks more like spring in New Hampshire, beautiful photos and interesting as always! Thanks, Allen.
🙂
You’re welcom Chris. Yes, I think spring is just about here now.
Those galls are very interesting.
I thought so too. That was the first time I had seen them and now it seemms like they’re everywhere.
You have a sharp eye for fungus. A treat to read as always.
Thank you. The woods are full of fungi, so they’re easy to find.
The skunk cabbage flowers are beautiful. I will be on the look out for those as our snow melts a bit more. Very interesting post. Thanks!
You’re welcome Sue. Skunk cabbage likes real swampy areas.
We had a couple of elm trees in our yard when I was very young, but I don’t remember the flowers at all. I hope that you are able to get photos of them when they are open to refresh my memory.
Yes, I will-that’s the plan anyhow!
I saw a couple of red maples in Concord in full bloom Thursday. When I got home I took down my sap buckets.
It always strikes me as strange that things bloom earlier in the north than in the south in this state, as if it’s all backwards. With the trees blooming the sap will be getting bitter now, for sure.
Great pictures thanks for sharing
Thanks, and thanks for coming by.
Great photographs. The galls are very interesting and it is lovely to see the tree buds forming.
This was the first time I had seen these galls, so naturally I had to find out all I could about them. The tree buds are saying that spring is almost here.
Fascinating stuff.
Thanks James.