2 March 2024
Regardless of a couple of chilly snaps, this iciness has been fairly heat in Pittsburgh and the vegetation are responding. All through the previous ten days I’ve discovered:
- Wooded area crocuses (Crocus tommasinianus) blooming within the grass on Neville Road and at Schenley Park,
- Skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) at North Park,
- Flowering cherry bushes blooming at Carnegie Museum.
Regardless of those indicators of spring the full glance of the land is brown. Closing Sunday, 25 Feb, I took a stroll with the Botanical Society of Western PA at Hays Woods the place I discovered a brand new grass.
Grease grass or purpletop (Tridens flavus) is a local bunchgrass whose seeds are oily, therefore the grease identify. Claire Staples holds it towards a dismal background so we will be able to see the seeds.
On Thursday I discovered a number of species of honeysuckle (Lonicera sp.) leafing out in Schenley Park.
Honeysuckle leafout is an spring indicator at the Nationwide Phenology Community (USA NPN) so I puzzled in regards to the standing of spring somewhere else. On 26 February USA NPN wrote:
How does this spring examine to “customary”?
After a gradual begin to spring in Florida and portions of the Southern Nice Plains, spring is spreading extra briefly now around the nation. Albuquerque, NM is every week early, St. Louis, MO is two weeks early, and portions of Washington, D.C. are 22 days early in comparison to a long-term reasonable of 1991-2020.— USA Nationwide Phenology Community, Standing of Spring on 26 Feb 2024
Yikes! Spring is working greater than 3 weeks early in Washington, DC!
Spring is early right here, too. Hold onto your hats, Pittsburgh! It’s time to get outdoor.