Over a month since my last visit to my phenology site, I was eager to see whether the specimen of American Beech I had examined in early March had made any signs of coming alive for the springtime. My spring break trip in Virginia had shown me cherry blossoms out in full force (so much so it triggered my allergies!), and all I could wonder was “Has spring finally reached Burlington?” Only one way to find out!
Let me say first and foremost that the walk to the tree was fraught with danger. I faced many obstacles, including icy conditions, and blowdowns. The photo below will give you a sense of this treachery. Compared to when I visited my site last, there was actually more snow this time around. Spring may be coming, but the icy tendrils of winter still linger in the depths of Centennial Woods.
Finally, when I reached my tree…I was sorely disappointed to see that it looked exactly the same as it had when I visited in early March (except with a bit more snow around the base). Just like last visit, there was no evidence of the tree’s awakening from dormancy. A key observation that supported this theory was the continual display of marcescence.
The retainment of the dead leaves on this specimen indicate that the tree has not yet dropped these final leaves to let new leaves grow. Taken with the fact that the buds have shown no signs of greenery and remain the dull, brown color of winter, it tells us that the tree so far has shown little change and the spate of warm temperatures Burlington has experienced recently will need to hold before the tree is ready to bloom in the springtime. In the meantime, I made my iNaturalist post and scrambled back up the icy terrain to return to campus. Hopefully, my visit on April 10th will see the tree maybe exhibiting some signs of greenery. However, that will wait for another time.
