Tree Flowers

It's hard to come back to this blog after a long absence.  So much is happening, it always seems like, why should this flower, or this insect, be the thing that gets me back into it?  Plus, with so much happening... I could easily show 10 plants that have changed phenophase since I left for my family's reunion 5 days ago.  So what got me to write today?  I learned something!  Now, it's not like I know everything there is to know about the natural world.  No one does, and I suppose I know more than most, but a lot of people know more than me.  I often learn things about nature -- from books or the internet.  I see something, I go back and ID it, or I research it so that I can be sure I'm being accurate or have enough to say when I'm writing.  

Today I had one of those experiences when I just noticed something that I'd never noticed before, learned something just from seeing and experiencing it.  Sumac is a plant that doesn't get much mention at this time of year in my observations.  In the fall, it's leaves turn brilliantly red, orange and yellow quite early, making it a prime target for observations.  Its red berries are striking above its foliage.  But this is the flower:

Green, blends in with the leaves.  You'd walk right by it, and I certainly have.  What I noticed today was that the flowers were covered with bees.  (No, no photo with a bee in it.  Oh, well.)  I never really thought about what pollinated those green and rather uninteresting flowers before, but apparently honeybees don't find them to be uninteresting.  The flowers were literally a-buzz with bees!  Naomi's new knowledge for today, gleaned by my own research rather than someone else's observations!

I"ll switch from barely-noticeable flowering trees to some of the most showy:

These catalpa flowers, each close to 2 inches across, are really very striking and in full bloom right now.  Just look at that spectacular coloration -- the yellow and purple in there.  I wonder what that might look like to a bee or another pollinating insect with compound eyes.  (Like neon "Eat Here!!!" signs, I always imagine.)

More tomorrow?  Maybe!

Can't Keep Up!

Things are happening so fast out there that if I had enough time to blog every single day, it still wouldn't be enough.  I'd need to blog every hour to keep up with all the changes.  we're supposed to get some cooler weather starting tomorrow, so maybe that'll put the brakes on.

The bloodroot, which started to flower on Sunday,
can't handle the heat (perhaps) and by today have
dropped their petals!

We're at that point where, if you look across a field at a tree line or forest, the whole thing takes on a lime green glow... a haze of tiny leaf-outs and tree flowers in the springiest of greens just hangs there.  Our catalpa has started leafing out.  Maples are all flowering now, including the green-yellow flowers of sugar and Norway maples.  Serviceberries look green... everything is just popping out green.  Meanwhile, here are some blooming updates... though I apologize for the photos, I couldn't really see the screen too well and didn't realize they weren't coming out!  Plus, I'm at the stripey-world computer.

Our sedges are flowering rather strikingly.

Blurry celandine poppies bloomed this morning!  So lovely...