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Bloomwatch, March: Easing the Spring
Mar. 29th, 2012 05:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
melannenEvery week I spend one afternoon volunteering at my local library, and since the weather turned late this winter, I've been walking there and back (1.8 miles each way, according to Google Maps.)
I've also been trying to record every flowering plant I see along the route, every week (which is something I've played with doing in a far less organized way many springs before, but having a weekly time and route for it is really neat; I can see a plant come up one week, in bud the next, and then blooming later. And since it's the same route every week, if there's a plant I can't quite identify one week, I can come back with a better guess next week, which is helping my identifications a lot. This week I saw 42 flowering plants on the route, of which I already could identify 34 with a fair amount of certainty before coming back to where my guides are, and I found good IDs for 7 of the other 8 in the books (the 8th one I took crappy notes and will have to wait for next week, if it's still there.)
I thought it might be fun to share my lists of flowering plants on here, for anyone else who is interested! I live in the Baltimore/Washington Metropolitan area, and route I take includes two abandoned railroad right-of-ways; roadsides going through commercial, industrial, low-density residential, and suburban development; a cloverleaf interchange with a limited-access highway; short stretches along the edges of second-growth forest; and a wooded creek bottom; but nearly all the plants are widely-distributed weed species that turn up in pastures, yards, and roadsides nearly everywhere people clear pastures, yards, and roadsides.
So here's the lists for one week in February and three in March (one week in March was canceled due to rain.)
( February 23, 2012 )
( March 15 )
( March 22, 2012 )
( March 29, 2012 )
You'll notice ALL THE TREES in this week's update. It's possible some of them were out earlier and I just didn't notice; trees only go on the list if I already know them, or if they're right in my face. Also, a lot of grasses are in bloom already, but I really, really don't know my grasses, so they're not going on the official list this year (I'm working on it!)
In non-flowering-plants news, there are fiddlehead ferns opening among last year's fronds on the washed-out railroad bridge, some of the evergreens have baby male and female cones in clusters, and the moss is in spore.
I've also been trying to record every flowering plant I see along the route, every week (which is something I've played with doing in a far less organized way many springs before, but having a weekly time and route for it is really neat; I can see a plant come up one week, in bud the next, and then blooming later. And since it's the same route every week, if there's a plant I can't quite identify one week, I can come back with a better guess next week, which is helping my identifications a lot. This week I saw 42 flowering plants on the route, of which I already could identify 34 with a fair amount of certainty before coming back to where my guides are, and I found good IDs for 7 of the other 8 in the books (the 8th one I took crappy notes and will have to wait for next week, if it's still there.)
I thought it might be fun to share my lists of flowering plants on here, for anyone else who is interested! I live in the Baltimore/Washington Metropolitan area, and route I take includes two abandoned railroad right-of-ways; roadsides going through commercial, industrial, low-density residential, and suburban development; a cloverleaf interchange with a limited-access highway; short stretches along the edges of second-growth forest; and a wooded creek bottom; but nearly all the plants are widely-distributed weed species that turn up in pastures, yards, and roadsides nearly everywhere people clear pastures, yards, and roadsides.
So here's the lists for one week in February and three in March (one week in March was canceled due to rain.)
( February 23, 2012 )
( March 15 )
( March 22, 2012 )
( March 29, 2012 )
You'll notice ALL THE TREES in this week's update. It's possible some of them were out earlier and I just didn't notice; trees only go on the list if I already know them, or if they're right in my face. Also, a lot of grasses are in bloom already, but I really, really don't know my grasses, so they're not going on the official list this year (I'm working on it!)
In non-flowering-plants news, there are fiddlehead ferns opening among last year's fronds on the washed-out railroad bridge, some of the evergreens have baby male and female cones in clusters, and the moss is in spore.
