Forsythia in Bloom

I've been watching the buds swell for a few days now, this morning is the first morning I would say they are in bloom.  I like data and would be curious to see a log for when a small local population, just to see how their timing.  Degree day information is out there as is daylight, but botanical triggers for flower opening, but those are less tangible metrics.  There is something a bit more beautiful and variable about tracking flower blooming.

Just a random short thought sipping a cup of coffee looking out the kitchen window over the sink at the Forsythia covered in yellow flowers.

I tried to get a snapshot, but the overcast morning light and shooting through the window are a less than successful combination.

Another botanical pondering recently was about the beard.  Winter beard must be more like a Blue Spruce than an Englemann spruce.  Two very similar trees.  Some have suggested that there is continuous variation from one to the other with significant overlap and potential ability to cross-pollinate (as in they aren't distinct species in the sexual (reproductive) isolation sense.  There is a practical difference that works to isolate them, the timing of bud/flower breaking.

Englemann spruce (Picea englemannii) tends to set bud as soon as it "warms up" once a certain degree day accumulation has been reached and the daylight is appropriate - the vasculature starts up and the cells in the buds begin to swell.  They are all tiny and small cells for plants, no vacuoles, meristematic by definition.  The initial expansion isn't driven by division, but by cell growth.  Division happens, but not initially.

The bud scales do a great job of insulating and protecting the vegetative of reproductive bud inside, but Englemann spruce is a high altitude, rocky mountain species.  It breaks dormancy aggressively, at first warmth more or less.  And in the native habitat that works, esp with such a short growing season.  If it waits to make sure it is for real, it misses out on critical days or weeks of growth.  This same thing makes it terribly unsuitable to grow anywhere else.  You see it in trees planted at low elevation, early bud sets routinely get killed by spring frosts.  Trees that primarily cue off temperature get in trouble like that.  They wind up ugly and stunted.  Not the majestic specimens they can be in their native habitat.

The Blue Spruce (Picea pungens) is different. This is a clever tree with a mechanism that allows it to succeed where the P englemannii fails.  The trees wait.   Patiently.  They know at lower elevations they have a bit more warmth, water, soil, nutrients, they can grow faster than their counterparts up higher.  And they've figured out that the first warm day never signals the end of the winter.

They wait.

The know it will get cold again.  And finally they break bud and go like gang busters.  By May the female cones are erect, pink and dripping with resin and ready to exude their pollination drop.  But sometimes they hold out a bit longer or go a bit earlier.  I found that out the hard way one field season collecting female cones.  Timing is variable.  And thus I needed an extra year to collect the data that I needed.

And in a few too many words, my winter beard is going to be more like the Blue Spruce.  A bit patient, not ready to reveal the face hiding under the fur. Easter may be too long to wait, but unlike the Spruce trees I can look at the long range forecast and see that we've got a 20°F morning coming up next week.  Would be a shame to have to put a balaclava on for the first time all year now.

Time for a bit more coffee, get cleaned up and then a slow ride into the bike shop for the day.

Heddwch
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