PAPER BIRCH, CREEPING PHLOX AND MARSH MARIGOLDS ARE BLOOMING

MALE CATKINS OF PAPER BIRCH IN FULL ANTHESIS (shedding pollen)

MUCH SMALLER, UPRIGHT FEMALE CATKIN

CREEPING FLOX BLOOMING

MARSH MARIGOLD BLOOMING

Sunday,  10:00 AM.  49 degrees F at the Ferry Dock, 59 on the back porch.  Wind variable, light with occasional gusts.  The sky is partly cloudy and hazzy, the humidity 80% and the barometer beginning to rise, now at 29.74".  The ten degree difference in dock and porch temperatures is undoubtedly due to variable wind directions, the former getting a breeze directly off the lake.
   I was awakened by the persistent drumming of the neighborhood male hairy woodpecker, who has found various ways to amplify his territorial message.  This morning he was telegraphing his "I'm the biggest, baddest, best looking guy around,"message to his ladies on the metal  sign just across the street.    As with the rest of us, it would probably be best if he didn't believe his own propaganda.
   The native paper birch, Betula papyrifera, in the Birch Family, are at full anthesis; that is, shedding pollen.  The male catkins started forming last fall and have now elongated and look like yellow worms, which hang from the ends of branches, usually in a bunch of three. The female catkins are singular, smaller, erect and further back on the branches.  The pollinated female flowers will develop seeds that ripen in the early fall and will drop from the catkins in fall and during the winter.  I have seen the tiny winged nutlets from our birch trees fall on snow all winter long.  Paper birch are trees of far northern Canada and Alaska; they are native from the northern limits of tree growth south into the western and eastern mountains and around the Great Lakes.  They grow under a wide variety of soil and moisture conditions in nature, and under cultivation do best with plenty of moisture but good drainage.  The roots should be kept cool by keeping lower branches on the tree and the tree being well mulched or with an undergrowth of shrubs or uncut grasses.  They are not long-lived and are particularly susceptible to bronze birch borer, both in the wild and in cultivation.  They are prized for their white, exfoliating bark.
   Creeping phlox, Phlox subulata,  in the Phlox Family, are native to most of the eastern half of North America, occurring mainly on sandy and rocky shorelines, dunes and similar areas.  They are much used in horticulture and have escaped in many places.  There are many various colored hybrids.  Under the right conditions they will grow well in a mowed lawn.  They started blooming in Bayfield a few days ago on warm, sunny banks.
   The marsh marigolds, Calthas palustris, in the Buttercup (Ranunculus)  Family,  just started blooming in roadside ditches on our back roads.  In another week the roadsides will be glorious with these bright yellow flowers. They are native throughout Canada, Alaska, the Upper Midwest and the West Coast, growing in  roadside ditches, along stream banks, and in bogs and other wet habitats.

   

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