Saturday, May 15, 2010

Return of the Natives

It doesn't take long for the pollinated flowers of Red Maple to start showing the little winged fruits. The stems elongate significantly and contribute a lot of colour by staying red for some time while the wings green up a bit earlier. Incidently, the tree whose flowering I photographed earlier has no seed set at all; it was the first nearby red maple tree in flower (maybe because of proximity to the house?) and the flowers were open when we had our last (hopefully) snowfall of the spring, accompanied by over 45 hours of very cold temperatures. I have to guess that killed the open flowers although I couldn't tell at the time, while the ones still in bud survived to open later and produce seed.





Red elderberry, flowers and leaves pretty much fully deployed. A very open shrub, even in full sun which this one isn't. Showy enough, and easy care since I don't even have to plant it.


















Speaking of native things, this year's black fly thermometer is out of calibration. Usually they only show up when the temperature is at or above 13C (by my thermometer in shade). But we've been seeing that so seldom that they're starting to buzz around at about 10C. The wind has seldom been still this year so they only manage to bug me during occasional lulls, which is good for me in the garden but a drag (one way) on the bike.


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