2 April 2020
Spring keeps coming to Pittsburgh in fits and starts. In the last week we’ve gone from +22 F degrees above normal (29 March) to -3 F degrees below normal (31 March) and yet the flowers and leaves keep coming.
To illustrate I took two photos of the same sedge in Schenley Park. The buds on 27 March burst open two days later in 77 degree heat.
Leaves are starting to pop, too. Yellow buckeyes (Aesculus flava) have their first leaves …
… and these reddish, toothed, compound leaves are opening on shrubs along West Circuit Road in Schenley Park. It’s a cultivated alien I can’t identify.
There are also flowers in the trees: Northern magnolia, crabapple buds, blooming (invasive) Callery pear, and flowering cherry.
I am so grateful that Schenley Park is still open.
Please keep physical distance in the parks or our parks will close as have those in other parts of Pennsylvania!
(photos by Kate St. John)
“…reddish, toothed, compound leaves…” look like they might be buckeye, perhaps red buckeye.
There is nothing better to me than Spring rebirth. We need this reminder right now, that life does go on!
Thanks, Kate for showing us the promise of Spring. I ,too, see so many changes of plant life on my daily walk through the neighborhood. It’s something refreshing and positive at this low point in our lives. Many thanks for your blog!