Cherry (Guest Contribution): Emily Boyd-Flora

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Today's images of the Cherry come courtesy of floral photographer Emily Boyd-Flora, taken mid March in Springdale Arkansas. What strikes me about these images is the similarity of these blossoms to those of the Bradford Pear( bottom). Indeed, many of our editable tree fruits (apple, pear, cherry, peach produce a similar five petaled bloom. Of course, what makes the cherry bloom so special - wedding white. (that against piercing blues skies is a thing to behold.) The Brad, by contrast comes in heavy cream.


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Bradford Pear (Similitude)

Yellow Jessamine

Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Asterids
Order: Gentianales
Family: Gelsemiaceae
Genus: Gelsemium
Species: G. sempervirens

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Jessamine

The Yellow Jessamine, looks from a distance like forsythia on steroids. By the end of March (central Arkansas) this flowering vine is on display everywhere: Mailboxes, telephone poles, gates, trellises, and homes. It appears to share common characteristics with the trumpet vine and appears to be called Yellow trumpet - or Evening Trumpet -on occasion. (A quick survey of the net shows several flowers under the Yellow-Trumpet name.) As is, the Yellow Jessamine is the State flower of South Carolina. According to Wikipedia, the flower is toxic, and NOT something to suck like honeysuckle.

Snapshot week 11: 3/15 - 3/21 New Green

Bradford Pears go green, petals roll down the street.

Lawns are rather bumpity with all kinds of fresh weed growth, onion grass, and nettle. (More next week)

Redbud, harmonize with new green and the copper green of new Oak (catkin) growth.

Garden Peach tree

New Sweetgum leaves and seedball clusters, with a couple of seed balls left from last year. (Note: the new seed balls will eventually drop and then hang below the branch as the balls gain mass.

Work kept me hopping this last week so new photo content is at a premium, but this last week was dominated by the cast of Redbud on the newly emerging oaks, and the proliferation of the Maple seedlings (Red, Mountain, Silvertip). Other standouts: new Sweetgum seed/leaf, the last of the peach, bold white cherry, and assorted other fruit tree blooms of uncertain identity.)

Maple "Helicopter seeds" belonging to an unknown variety. (Probably Mountain Maple)

Snapshot Week 8: 2/22 -2/28 Maple Force

file: Johnquils



Red-Maple flowerette





File: Japanese Magnolia

Japanese Magnolia of the stubby branch, second variety





file: Wild Pear (Bradford?)




Snapshot:

1)The lacy smaller Jonquil made a showing, while the the larger big daffodils are poking up.


2)The Silver Tip and Mountain Maples continue in full flower, though I have yet to see a whisper from the larger Sugar Maples.


3/4) Japanese Magnolia varieties 1 and 2 in full force at the Arkansas State Capitol. Variety 2 is a little later blooming with shorter pedals, found on short stubby branches.


5) Tuesday/Wednesday 24/25 - I noticed the first wild Pear in bloom (these may be Bradfords, but they are less shaped than the store bought variety. Thursday morning (2/26) Brads started opening in Little Rock. The trees started blooming in mass between 10 Am and 2PM. Really. Followed by a similar cycle a day later in Conway. (The quick flash bloom seems to have slowed given colder temps into the weekend.

Other activity:

Yellow forsythia (sp)
Pink Japonica