Nature
This Week at Nixon Park - May 3-9
A seasonably warm week with plenty of sun, and enough rain to break the back of the drought.
Flowers
Flowers
This Week at the Park
There's so much to see in April! Here's some of the observations from this week.
Nature
The Yellow Trout Lily
Trout Lily Growth Stages Year 1 (June-December): Seed stage. Year 2 (April): The seed sprouts, a single embryonic leaf (the cotyledon) grows down into the soil first, then the tip pops up above ground. At the bottom, underground, the very first tiny bulb starts to form. Notice it's
Nature
Eating Tree Flowers?
I had no idea that squirrels ate tree flowers. I don't know why the idea surprised me when Mark Volpe sent me the picture above, but it did - after all squirrels do eat or gnaw on just about everything else. The practice was confirmed for Red Squirrels
Nature
Signs of things to come
Two more spring ephemerals started showing up this week. Wild leeks grow thickly in one section of the park. I may be wrong but I suspect they are lasting remnant of an area that the Lenape people harvested. I think this because the abundance of them points to a long
Nature
Ephemerality
To be short lived, temporary, or fleeting. The Greek origin is "ephemeros" (meaning "lasting only one day"). Right now the spring ephemerals are making their annual appearance. The ephemerals appear when the weather warms, but before the tree canopy fills with leaves shading out the forest