Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Maple Flowers and Marsh Marigolds

I was right about the trees turning green that I shared the other day; for the most part it's not the leaves but the flowers of the Sugar Maples that provide that light green glow, rapidly followed by the leaves emerging.  I fear most people don't actually notice Sugar Maple flowers, and because they're green, we just think it's leaves starting to unfold.

Sugar Maple flowers are tiny drooping umbels of flowers hanging down on long thin pedicels.  The whole cluster here is about 3" tall, but the flowers are the tiny bells of stamens and pistils, about 1/8" in size at the bottom of the thin pedicels.

They give the canopy of the tree a bright yellow-green colour, but only for a few days until the leaves emerge.

It took me some time this afternoon driving around the rural roads until I found a maple with branches low enough to get these pictures, and they were all blowing in the wind, the slightest breeze enough to move them..

For some reason only a few of the thousands of Sugar Maples around here are flowering; perhaps these are just the early ones.  You can see there's only one tree down this road that has that characteristic green canopy.

I stopped down by the Beaver River too, to check out the Marsh Marigolds on the floodplain at the bottom of Kimberley Forest.

There's a large area there that is just yellow with them at the moment, all with their feet wet.

I see the bright yellow flowers flash by in a lot of ditches as I drive around the valley, one of the more obvious markers of the changing seasons here.



10 comments:

  1. Lovely photos . We have maple flowers like that all over the yard now and the maple has leaves now to they shed the flowers and grow the leaves then come the late summer they turn into More commonly referred to as “helicopters,” “whirlers,” “twisters” or “whirligigs,” they are really called samaras and are the winged seeds produced by maple trees. . Our birch tree has what we call cattail seeds or catkin seeds that are falling and the tree is now leafing as well . I love all the new of trees and plants this time of year all so fresh and pretty . Thanks for sharing , have a good day !

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  2. I should go check for our marsh marigolds! Thanks for the reminder. I love the way spring unfolds! Beautiful photos!

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  3. Beautiful flowers, and I do so like the way you manage to get a photo from the ground through the canopy of leaves. A sure sign of that delicious syrup to come later on.

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  4. Hello, the marsh marigold are a pretty scene. I like the shot of the road and trees. Great collection of photos. Happy Thursday, enjoy your day!

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  5. I love marsh marigolds myself. I hope to see some today but probably won't, since we're going to the High Country and they won't come out for another month or so. But I've already seen yours today, so I'm happy. :-)

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  6. Those are some nice blue skies! Glad you are getting some color in your woods.

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  7. The maple flowers certainly are a pretty sight. The marigolds are lovely!

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  8. Maple flowers is as good as any reason for a drive through your beautiful countryside!

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  9. Those yellow blooms are lovely.
    The trees just perfect.

    A lovely season

    All the best Jan

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