The earliest blooming flower in my garden is a snowdrop, Galanthus ‘S. Arnott’. The earliest blooming wild flower is coltsfoot. But the earliest blooming native flower? For that, you have to look up. Way up. Because the earliest blooming native flower belongs to the red maple, Acer rubrum.
I am always looking down at the ground this time of year, looking for the first spring ephemeral to poke out of the ground. I forget that trees bloom, too, and the red maple is the first. Come to think of it, I do look up during mud season. I look for the red haze on the hillside that tells me spring is on the way. I just forget that the haze is red maples blooming. If you live in the eastern part of North America, you are probably already familiar with this tree, as it is the most common species of tree in North America. It is very adaptable, growing strong lateral roots and a short taproot in moist to swampy soils and a deep taproot with short lateral roots in dry soils. The brilliant fall red color combined with its ability to grow in a wide range of conditions makes it a popular landscape tree. It’s ubiquitous. Some even call it invasive. But while it is a sub-climax tree, the forestry service reports that it can take up to 80 years for the climax sugar maples to predominate. Perhaps it just seems like red maple is taking over, when really it just takes a human lifetime for it to finish its appointed role in succession. It has also had less competition due to the demise of elm and American chestnut. While it may be common, I don’t want to take it for granted. It brings a lot of color to a dreary time of year. Wikipedia reports that the leaves are highly toxic to horses. Did you know that? The next time you find yourself wondering if winter will ever end, look up and see if you can’t find some flowers blooming.This post is part of an ongoing series on mud season.
My silver maples bloom early but not as early as the red. And my maple flowers did not bloom fully…they are going from bud to leaf because of all the freezes we had in early April. I will miss their blooms.
This is a visual feast! Thoroughly enjoyed this post! I love to watch out for flowering ,fruiting etc of trees in my neighbourhood . So happy to see there are others with this hobby too!
I so enjoyed this posting! Waiting for spring!
Me too, sad that our recent April cold snap smashed my daffs down. I’m trying to be optimistic that they will bounce back. You never know! Looking for to 66 temps this weekend.
I always look for the citrusy green of early willows to signal spring. They seem to know before even the maples. And I’m seeing tiny violas under the shrubs which appeared just after the snowdrops.
Yes, the willows are another early harbinger of spring. Usually the earliest willows I see are not the native ones, and so I didn’t include it as the earliest flowering native plant. Willows have the advantage of growing near water, which is usually a slightly warmer microclimate, so they will be a bit earlier for that reason as well.
I so enjoyed the beautiful scenic drive home (well, except for a short stint in PA) because all the Maples were in bloom! Further South, Dogwoods and Redbud. Native trees are especially beautiful. I have a young red maple in my garden not quite in bloom yet but the Serviceberry is getting ready to flower. The Dogwoods will follow. I fully expected Spicebush to be in bloom – I may have missed it.
Or your spicebush was victim of the untimely cold spell we had after several days of mild weather. We got down to single digits a couple of nights, so I am sure you did, too.
So marvellous to see the blue sky and tiny bits of flowering treasures. Woke up to fog and 2″ of snow. Perhaps by Thursday we will have moved from the season of ice and snow to mud – fingers crossed!
Most of those pics were taken in previous years. Our recent snow has melted off but we’re still waiting for clear skies.