March 8, 2023

Today I went back nearby my phenology spot to locate one of the four assigned tree species. The species that I ended up finding and identifying was a Red Maple (Acer Rubrum). I found this tree off of the path on the way to my spot, and I immediately looked up to see what I was pretty sure were the buds of a maple. I was able to identify this tree as a Red Maple specifically because the buds did not have a scent when crushed like a Norway Maple, and they were obviously very red, counting out the Sugar Maple whose buds are brown. Those are the two winter lookalikes for this species.

At first I thought that the tree was fruiting because I saw some berries. But I think there was overlap of a few tree species in some of the branches because of the way the trees were growing out of the ground. Ultimately, I realized that the berries were not from the maple. A lot of the surrounding trees were fruiting though, which I think is an exciting sign of spring!! Looking at the buds, you can see that they are not flowering, so the phenological phase is defined as “no evidence of flowering.” This was recorded in my iNaturalist post as well as the species.