Many trees and shrubs flower well before they leaf out, and most people don't notice it happening at all because the flowers are often small and/or green and/or lacking in petals. I reported on a couple yesterday, and there are a few more that will be popping tomorrow or the next day, but here's today's batch:
Alder catkins were tight brown clusters yesterday, but today were significantly swollen and dangly with their green pollen showing. Unfortunately, it was a pretty windy day and things that hang down to catch the wind are not easy to photograph up close in those conditions, so here's a further-out view:
This tiny and vibrantly pink thing is the female flower of the American hazel. Though it's brightly colored, they are only about 2-3 mm in size, so get little notice. (The male flowers are catkins, smaller and lighter-colored than the alder ones, but otherwise similar. Generally speaking, they and the female flowers bloom around the same time within a population, but NOT at the same time on a single shrub, so as to increase genetic variability by prohibiting individuals from pollinating themselves. In the cluster of 6ish shrubs that I passed, I found female flowers, but no catkins had swelled/released pollen yet. Usually you see that first, but... I guess the ladies are going to be lonely for a little while! Or perhaps there's other hazels nearby to pollinate them.)
PS -- It's supposed to get all cold again tomorrow. It's come to that -- a predicted high of 46 deg. in February is what I consider "all cold" -- 32 on Saturday, though. That's actually wintry!
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