Wild Life
by Kerstin Lange
June 3, 2010, page 10.....

A Different Kind of Flower Show

Each year in spring, I am reminded of an encounter in the woods many years ago that set in motion a whole web of discoveries. My opposite in this encounter was a small bird, no more than six inches tall and sitting high up in a tree top.
With its eye-popping red and black plumage, identifying the bird as a scarlet tanager was not particularly difficult. In the process, my previous catch-all mental category for birds became painfully insufficient. Now I had to know what other birds were out there. What was that tiny yellow streak over there? What about that majestic-looking creature scanning the surface of the pond for movement from its perch on a dead tree? From then on, getting to know the birds gave me a whole new way of discovering trees – not only as individuals, but as “the woods” – and not just generic woods, but microcosms of particular plants, soil conditions and topography where birds and other animals don’t just appear randomly. One aha experience was noticing that wherever I could hear the song of the hermit thrush, I could also count on smelling the scent of balsam firs.
Another discovery I have the scarlet tanager to thank for is the kind of flower show many trees put on each spring. Botanically speaking, the particular flower that opened my eyes to this annual phenomenon turned out not to be a flower at all – but it might as well count as an honorary one, with its pastel tones of orange and cream and its petals elegantly curved back, reminiscent of a Georgia O’Keeffe painting. It belonged to an enormous shagbark hickory, and the supposed flower was actually made up of the bud scales that unfurl with the hickory’s new leaves. Shagbark hickory, I later came to learn, is one of the major tree species in clayplain forests. Charlotte is fortunate to harbor a prime example in Williams Woods.
Flower or bud, of a natural community of hickories from the day of my shagbark hickory encounter on, I looked much more closely at both on my walks in the woods and around the neighborhood. Noticing the flowers on the various species of maple became an exhilarating spring hobby, and I had to be quick about it. The flowers on some trees last only a few days.
Beyond the sheer fun of getting to know thetrees better by their flowers, this new hobby tuned me in to patterns in time: when do the sugar maples begin to flower? compared to red maples? compared to boxelders? Noticing these things also helped me notice that this year, the red maple in front of my house flowered two weeks earlier than last year.
This may or may not be meaningful, but it is certainly not a random observation. Records kept by regular people with a knack for observation have been analyzed by the National Phenology Network and show that the first flowering of some species now occurs an average of 5 days earlier than it did in 1955
These kinds of observations have meaning beyond the personal. Considering how closely events in the natural calendar are intertwined, we should pay attention to such changes. Think only of the fact that at least one-third of the world’s agricultural crops depends on pollination by insects or other animals.
To notice these kinds of things about birds, trees and flowers, to transition from knowing the pieces of the natural world to noticing patterns, takes time, just as getting to know people does. People with an interest in the natural world can begin taking notes on the plants in their backyards or in their surroundings. A manual for plant phenology observers has been compiled by David Weinstein at Cornell University and can be downloaded from the Web at budbreak.tc.cornell.edu/downloads/BudBreak_manual.pdf .
As with getting to know people over time, the reward in getting to know our natural surroundings lies in neverending discovery and wonder.

This essay is adapted from a commentary written by Kerstin Lange for Vermont Public Radio. The commentary aired on April 28 and can be heard at vpr.net. Kerstin Lange is a writer, naturalist and travel planner. She lives in South Burlington and can be reached at KLange@LandscapeAnalysis.com.