If you like wildflowers, you're in luck. Bangor Land Trust (BLT) will be holding a series of wildflower walks on BLT preserves this spring and summer. Topics such as flower parts, identification, and pollination will be discussed. We hope to see you at one or all of them. The BLT home page or event calendar will supply the schedule.
While you're out on the trails right now, look for red maple, quaking aspen, alder, and beaked hazelnut blooming. The first three trees can sometimes be too tall to see the blooms up close, so if you have a pair of binoculars, be sure to take them along.
The fourth tree mentioned is a shrubby tree. The blooms are small, but the tree grows lower to the ground which makes it easier to see with naked eyes. Beaked hazelnut (Corylus cornuta) grows in open woods and forest edges to about 18 feet tall. The male and female flowers emerge separate from each other. The male catkin produces pollen that is carried by the wind to the red stigma. The photos below show the flowers in early stages of bloom. When you're out on the trail, it may be easier to see last year's fruit (pictured below). It has a very unique shape. There is a hard-shelled hazelnut inside the beaked husk that you see. Birds and rodents (such as red squirrel and chipmunk) spread the seed when they store food for winter.
It may still be a little chilly outside, but there's lots to see in Bangor's Wild Back Yard. Happy trails!
While you're out on the trails right now, look for red maple, quaking aspen, alder, and beaked hazelnut blooming. The first three trees can sometimes be too tall to see the blooms up close, so if you have a pair of binoculars, be sure to take them along.
The fourth tree mentioned is a shrubby tree. The blooms are small, but the tree grows lower to the ground which makes it easier to see with naked eyes. Beaked hazelnut (Corylus cornuta) grows in open woods and forest edges to about 18 feet tall. The male and female flowers emerge separate from each other. The male catkin produces pollen that is carried by the wind to the red stigma. The photos below show the flowers in early stages of bloom. When you're out on the trail, it may be easier to see last year's fruit (pictured below). It has a very unique shape. There is a hard-shelled hazelnut inside the beaked husk that you see. Birds and rodents (such as red squirrel and chipmunk) spread the seed when they store food for winter.
It may still be a little chilly outside, but there's lots to see in Bangor's Wild Back Yard. Happy trails!
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