Scratching a spicebush branch with my thumbnail (photo by Kate St. John)
12 April 2022
We’re used to the idea that flowers smell sweet but did you know that some twigs and buds have scents too? Scratch and sniff to find these three.
Spicebush (Lindera sp.) stands out right now with yellow flowers in balls along the branches. Scratch and sniff the twig, as I am doing above. It smells like spice, almost nutmeg.
Spicebush at Schenley Park, 9 April 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Before this tree leafs out, scratch and sniff a bud on a bitternut hickory (Carya cordiformis). It smells like lemons.
Bitternut hickory buds, Schenley Park, 9 April 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Juniper berries (Juniperus sp.) are a favorite food of cedar waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum) on spring migration. Last week I found 40 of them feasting at the junipers near CMU’s Morewood Gardens parking lot.
Scratch or crush a berry. It smells like gin. … Or so they say. I haven’t smelled gin in years because I don’t like it.
Juniper berries from Devonshire Street at CMU (penny for scale), 8 April 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Almost-blooming native trees including eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) in Frick Park.
Redbud flowers in bud, 7 April 2022 in Frick Park (photo by Kate St. John)
Swelling buds and leaf out on the yellow buckeyes (Aesculus flava) in Schenley Park.
Yellow buckeyes in Schenley Park: buds and leaf out! (photos by Kate St. John)
and Mud Season!
Mud season! after a trek in Schenley Park, 9 April 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
This year’s cold weather delayed the trees compared to last year on this date. For comparison see Spring Green from 10 April 2021.
And finally: Why did it Rain, Sun, Rain, Sun over and over again yesterday? The National Weather Service radar shows a flock of discrete self-contained rain clouds moving over the landscape.
Spring was on hold during last week’s long hard frost but it’s coming back this week. Here’s what to expect outdoors in the Pittsburgh area.
The earliest warblers arrive in April before the leaves open. Last weekend a Louisiana waterthrush returned to Tom’s Run Nature Reserve in Sewickley PA. Look for them walking along clean streams, bobbing their tails, and singing their very loud song.
Yellow-throated warblers will return to Pittsburgh area creeks and streams on or before 20 April. You’ll hear them before you see them, walking the high trunks and larger branches of sycamores.
Snow trillium, Little Sewickley Creek, Westmoreland County, 3 April 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Soon we’ll see spring beauty, spicebush, hepatica, harbinger-of-spring, bloodroot, spring cress, twinleaf, violets and more.
Spicebush in Schenley Park, 13 April 2013 (photo by Kate St. John)Bloodroot at Cedar Creek Park, Westmoreland County, 19 April 2014 (photo by Kate St. John)
Squill showing frost damage, 30 March 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
3 April 2022
As I mentioned last weekend, the weather was lovely on 24 March with a high of 60oF but things went sharply downhill from there. For three and a half days Pittsburgh was below freezing and the weather deteriorated from windy snow on 27 March to lows of 14-19oF and blizzard conditions on 28 March.
Heavy snow & low visibility, 29 March 2022, 12:35pm (photo by Kate St. John)Heavy snow became blizzard conditions, 29 March 2022, 12:35pm (photo by Kate St. John)
Finally the temperature rose rise above freezing at midday 29 March but it was too late for the early-returning tree swallows who had no insects to eat right when they needed lots of food to stay alive. Julie found three dead in the bluebird boxes she tends at Moraine State Park. Fortunately purple martin landlords kept their early birds alive with supplemental feedings.
Flowers took a beating, too. The squill pictured at top bloomed after the frost passed but its tips were damaged. You can see the same effects on northern magnolia bud and flower below.
Frost damage on northern magnolia bud, Schenley Park, 30 March 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)Frost damage on northern magnolia flower, Schenley Park, 30 March 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Forsythia wilted.
Wilted forsythia flowers after the frost, 28 March 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Meanwhile some alien plants came through without a scratch. Coltsfoot sent up cheerful flowers in the sunshine on 30 March.
Coltsfoot blooming on Eckert Street, 30 March 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
And lesser celandine bloomed at Frick Park on 31 March.
Lesser Celandine, Frick Park, 31 March 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Though tonight’s low will be 31oF the rest of the week will be above freezing, though wet. I hold out hope that April won’t see a long hard frost.
Flowering cherry in Pittsburgh, 24 March 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
26 March 2022
This week the elms, maples, ornamental cherries and northern magnolias began to bloom in Pittsburgh. Their flowers have not yet reached their peak and that’s a good thing. Tomorrow night the low will be 19 degrees F and will devastate the tender petals.
Above, an ornamental cherry shows off its delicate pink-white blossoms in the sun on Thursday 24 March. Below, a northern magnolia flower peeks out of its winter coat in Schenley Park on Tuesday 22 March.
Northern magnolia flower bud, 22 March 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Red maple flowers, 22 March 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas), one of the earliest shrubs to bloom in western Pennsylvania, is a Eurasian member of the dogwood family. It can also look like an understory tree.
Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas) at Moraine State Park, 24 March 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Also blooming in yellow this week, forsythia is putting out tentative flowers.
Forsythia blooming (photo by Kate St. John)
And at Frick Park the hellebore planted near the Environmental Education Center is in full bloom (probably Hellebore odorus). I wonder if these nodding flowers will survive the cold.
Hellebore in bloom in Frick Park, 25 March 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Meanwhile I’m not worried about the new leaves on these hardy invasive plants. I doubt they’ll be damaged by the cold.
Bush honeysuckle leaf out in Frick Park, 21 March 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)Privet leaf out in Oakland, 23 March 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)Garlic mustard leaf out in Frick Park, 21 March 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Take a look at flowers today. They’ll be gone tomorrow night.
After yesterday’s 2.5 to 5 inches of drifting snow, this morning’s temperature is 14oF. Our progress toward Spring has been halted in only a day.
Last week I saw hopeful signs of Spring.
Skunk cabbage was blooming at Jennings Prairie on 5 March.
Skunk cabbage, Jennings Prairie, 5 March 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Northern magnolia buds were beginning to open at Schenley Park on 8 March.
Northern magnolia bud, Schenley Park, 8 March 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Spring peepers had started to sing at Moraine State Park on 10 March, calling very slowly in the cold. Turn up your speakers to hear 5 creaky peeps in the video.
And The Crocus Report came back positive on 7 March when I found a lawn of purple crocuses blooming on North Neville Street.
Crocuses blooming, North Neville Street, 7 March 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)Lawn of purple crocuses, North Neville Street, 7 March 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
But yesterday morning brought heavy snow and gusty winds, drifts and bare patches.
(building provides a dark backdrop so you can see the snow.)
The tender plants have died. Those crocuses are gone. Spring has been dealt a setback.
This week in Pittsburgh the weeping willows turned yellow for spring and male red-winged blackbirds came back to the marshes. At Homewood Cemetery the two combined when a red-winged blackbird called from a large willow. He’s the black dot at 9 or 10 o’clock (on the dial) in my photo.
Yellow willow tree + red-winged blackbird, Homewood Cemetery, 2 March 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
The red-wings didn’t look so spiffy three weeks ago at Frick Park’s feeders, below. Now they are sharply black and red.
Red-winged blackbirds, 9 Feb (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
Over at Schenley Park the moss is greening up on the tufa bridges and purple “weed” leaves are looking hairy.
Tufa bridge has moss and purple basal leaves (photo by Kate St. John)
A closer look reveals the hairs may be tiny rootlets. Last summer I knew the name of this “weed” but I don’t remember it now. (Best guess via Stephen Tirone is hawkweed)
Are these tiny roots growing from the leaves? (photo by Kate St. John)
Since plants are rooted to the ground, the only way they find a new place to live is through seed dispersal. Pressure to find new places is intensified by climate change but a study published this month in Science points out:
Half of all plant species rely on animals to scatter their seeds through hitchhiking in scat, fur, or beaks. When mammal and bird populations decline, so does the ability plants have to disperse their seeds and adapt to climate change. Loss of mammals and birds cuts a plant’s ability to adapt by 60 percent.
In 2017 study at Utrecht University found that mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) significantly help plants and isolated wetlands by dispersing seeds in winter.
Mallards change their diet during the year, from carnivorous in the breeding season to vegetarian in winter. During migration they stop to eat then disperse seeds later along the way. This particularly helps isolated wetlands that would not gain new seeds otherwise.
Mallards also help every day on their wintering grounds by moving back and forth from roosting to feeding areas. Where there is hunting pressure you might not see this because mallards change their ways: eating at night and hiding at the roost during the day.
Tree with mistletoe, Tidewater Virginia (photo by Kate St. John)
24 December 2021
This weekend we’re in Tidewater Virginia where the trees are bare but not empty. Many hold green balls of American mistletoe (Phoradendron leucarpum), a hemi-parasitic plant that extracts water and nutrients from tree branches while it also photosynthesizes.
Mistletoe in tree, Tidewater Virginia (photo by Kate St. John)
At this time of year it sports sprays of white berries that are toxic to humans but good for birds.
Though now a symbol of deserts everywhere, this unusual “tree” is native only to the Sonoran desert of Arizona, California and northwestern Mexico.
Saguaro (pronounced “sah-WAH-ro“) grows to 50 feet in height; its tremendous weight, up to nine tons, is supported by a skeleton of about two dozen spongy, wooden rods. Accordion pleats [expand and] contract as they gain and lose moisture. White flowers open after nightfall and close by late afternoon the following day. Saguaro has fleshy red fruit. Giant, leafless, columnar tree cactus with massive, spiny trunk and usually 2-10 stout, nearly erect, spiny branches.
Birds, animals and humans make use of this cactus.
Native Americans made use of the entire cactus. … Gila woodpeckers and gilded flickers make round holes near the tops of branches for nests that are used afterwards by elf owls, cactus wrens, and other birds. Wildlife, especially white-winged doves, consume quantities of the seeds.
