Viburnum: Rise of the Clovers

Concomittant with the flowering of the viburna is Rise of the Clovers, the first flowering of Trifolium repens, the white clover and shortly thereafter the flowering of Trifolium pratense, red clover.

Both of these will hang around all summer to be joined shortly by the the yellow members of the clover posse ("Linneaus meet Tupac") T. dubium, T aureum, T. hybridum.

Along with these clovers, and dominated by their big brother the black locust, is the really weird and sneaky weed Medicago lupulina whose legumes curl up into a crafty little spiral, which is the only way to tell it from the smaller yellow clovers.

Viburnum

At the end of May and the beginning of June there occurs a short very intense season that can go unnoticed by gardeners and professional botanists but which never goes unnoticed by the true amateur naturalist.

This season--the season Viburnum--is THE portent of summer, and the last of the spring seasons. It is NEVER more than two weeks long, and often occurs in a single week between the two longer seasons Sweet Vernal Grass and Galium.

This is the time of the flowering of no less than four species of Viburnum:

Viburnum dentatum--yellow arrow wood (shown above)
Viburnum lentago--nannyberry
Viburnum rafinesquianum--downy arrow wood
Viburnum acerifolium--maple leaf viburnum or dockmackie

It is impossible to underestimate the power of this season as it stands between the greater seasons of the land's spring and summer

Sweet Vernal Grass: Great Weed #3

The season Sweet Vernal Grass is a season of maturity. Huge changes occur that might be called a filling of the world. Trees change from chartreuse to green and by the end of Sweet Vernal Grass the world is a more uniform green than ever.

A lot of plants bloom, including Robinia pseudoacacia, the black locust which makes some of the hills around here white--though at 42.31, -73.55 there are none.

One plant that blooms on or around 5.15 to 5.20 is Great Weed #3, Dactylus glomerata, orchard grass.

Sweet Vernal Grass is the land's first maturity, fullness of cover in field of forest, whose plants provide the cover from which the next seasons are built. Astronomy freaks and Keplar heads note we are not yet in your summer.

Sweet Vernal Grass: Lilacs

from Walt Whitman

WHEN lilacs last in the door-yard bloom’d,
And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night,
I mourn’d—and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.
O ever-returning spring! trinity sure to me you bring;
Lilac blooming perennial, and drooping star in the west,
And thought of him I love.

In the door-yard fronting an old farm-house, near the white-wash’d palings,
Stands the lilac bush, tall-growing, with heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
With many a pointed blossom, rising, delicate, with the perfume strong I love,
With every leaf a miracle......and from this bush in the door-yard,
With delicate-color’d blossoms, and heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
A sprig, with its flower, I break.

Sweet Vernal Grass

Sometime around May 15th many of the dandelions have set seed and their blowpuffs are ready to be, well, blowpuffed.

This is a time when the surrounding area is white with apple and honeysuckle. this is the season of the lilac, which turns any garden into something that smells sweet. This is the time of the next season, still in the astronomer's spring, the season called Sweet Vernal Grass.

Let's review the REAL seasons while thumbing our nose at astronomy.

Season Begins when Ends when
1. Amelanchier Skunk Cabbage blooms 3.26
2. Taraxacum Dandelions bloom 4.21
3. Sweet Vernal Grass Dandelions fruit 5.15

Taraxacum: Chartreuse

The development of new leaves on the trees in the season Taraxacum mean that the period from about May 1 to May 15 is a time when the world is chartreuse.

To see four RGB colors named chartreuse, go to the following website.

http://www.livjm.ac.uk/cwis/colors/Chartreuse.htm


The name of the color is derive from the color of a liqueur. The following is copied from a website about the color chartreuse.

Chartreuse is an herbal liqueur made by the Carthusian Monks near Grenoble, France. According to the tale, the formula for chartruese was invented by a 16th century alchemist as an attempt to create aqua vitae (the waters of life.) Aqua vitae was believed to restore youth to the aged, endow animation to the dead, and be a key ingredient in the creation of the philosophers stone. Though this attempt at its creation seems to fall somewhat short of the legendary effects, it was promoted as a heal-all tonic by the descendant of the alchemist, and was bequeathed to the Carthusian Order upon his death. This formula of 130 herbs has been secret for nearly 400 years. Today, only three brothers of that monestary know how to make chartreuse.

Taraxacum: Great Weed #2

A bit after the garlic mustard blooms, the second great weed blooms--and it's a far prettier sight both during blooming and after than Alliaria. Great Weed # 2 is the Barbarea vulgaris, the yellow rocket. At this spot and throughout mid May in this region, fields are yellow with this member of the mustard family.