On March 30th, I set out to explore campus on a phenology walk to observe the phenophases of five different tree species. The temperatures are just starting to warm up, but keeping us in a cold winter feel with a few inches of snow on the ground. The tree species observed were red oak, sugar maple, white oak, red maple, and norway maple. As I walked around campus searching for these trees, I readied my Nature’s Notebook app. This app lets you mark the phenophases in an easy to use format. All phenophase signs are to be answered by yes or no’s and collected a wide variety of data. The options included breaking leaf buds, leaves, increasing leaf size, colored leaves, falling leaves, flowers or flower buds, open flowers, pollen release, fruits, ripe fruits, and recent fruit or seed drop.
The phenophases present in the five tree species are listed below:
- Norway maple
- N/A, no phenophases were observed at the time
- Red oak
- Had a few old, dead leaves attached from last season
- White oak
- Had most old, dead leaves attached from last season
- Sugar maple
- Some buds were breaking, but not all
- Red maple
- A lot of buds were breaking, but not all
I have attached photos from the walk below. It was really interesting to observe the different phenophases of the tree species so early on in the spring!
After exploring NPN’s website, I found a pheno forecast for insect pests and invasive species. It was really interesting to read about as these forecasts predict the timing of key life cycle stages in these species so that we can better manage them in agricultural and natural resource management practices.