I visited my phenology spot in centennial woods today around 11am. It was a beautiful and sunny 31 degrees. My specific phenology site had no red maple, red oak, paper birch, or American beech trees with accessible buds/branches so I had to venture up the hill a bit until I found some. I soon came across a small American beech tree with many accessible branches. On these branches were many slender “cigar-shaped,”sharp pointed buds. They were about 1/2 to 3/4 inches long, brown and scaly in appearance, and were in an alternate pattern along the branch. The bark was smooth and pale gray in color. These characteristics are how one can identify an American beech during winter. There was no evidence of flowering yet.
