I would make a chart of our life,
know why just this circle of creatures completes the world.
Henry Thoreau, April 18, 1852.
It will take you half a lifetime
to find out where to look for the earliest flower
April 2, 1856
February 11. When I read of the catkins of
the alder and the willow, etc., scattering their yellow pollen, they impress me
as a vegetation which belongs to the earliest and most innocent dawn of nature;
as if they must have preceded other trees in the order of creation, as they
precede them annually in their blossoming and leafing. For how many aeons
did the willow shed its yellow pollen annually before man was
created! February 11, 1854
February 28. At the Cliff, the tower-mustard, early crowfoot, and perhaps buttercup appear to have started of late. It takes several years' faithful
search to learn where to look for the earliest flowers. February 28, 1857
March 10. The alder's catkins — the earliest
of them — are very plainly expanding, or, rather, the scales are loose and
separated, and the whole catkin relaxed. March 10, 1853
March 18. At Conantum Cliff the columbines
have started and the saxifrage even,. . .These plants waste not a day, not a
moment, suitable to their development. March 18, 1853
March 18. Skunk-cabbage, now generally and
abundantly in bloom all along under Clamshell . . .There is but one flower in
bloom in the town, and this insect knows where to find it. You little think
that it knows the locality of early flowers better than you. March 18, 1860
The honeybee stretches
and goes forth in search of the
earliest flower.
The spring flower too
expects a winged visitor
knocking at its door.
March 22. The very earliest alder is in
bloom and sheds its pollen. I detect a few catkins at a distance by their
distinct yellowish color. This the first native flower. March 22, 1853
March 23. The white maple may perhaps be
said to begin to blossom to-day, — the male, — for the stamens, both anthers
and filament, are conspicuous on some buds. It has opened unexpectedly, and a
rich sight it is, looking up through the expanded buds to the sky. March 23,
1853
March 26. The buds of the cowslip are very yellow, and the plant is not observed a rod off, it lies so low and close to the surface of the water in the meadow. It may bloom and wither there several times before villagers discover or suspect it. March 26, 1857
March 27. Of our seven indigenous flowers which begin to bloom in March, four, i. e. the two alders, the aspen, and the hazel, are not generally noticed so early, if at all, and most do not observe the flower of a fifth, the maple. The first four are yellowish or reddish brown at a little distance, like the banks and sward moistened by the spring rain
March 27. The hazel is fully out. . . . It is in
some respects the most interesting flower yet, though so minute that only an
observer of nature, or one who looked for them, would notice it. It is the
highest and richest colored yet, - ten or a dozen little rays at the end of the
buds which are at the ends and along the sides of the bare stems. Some of the
flowers are a light, some a dark crimson. The high color of this minute, unobserved
flower, at this cold, leafless, and almost flowerless season! It is a beautiful
greeting of the spring, when the catkins are scarcely relaxed and there are no
signs of life in the bush. March 27, 1853
The hazel is out
at this cold leafless season
greeting the spring.
April 2. In the warm recess at the
head of Well Meadow, which makes up on the northeast side of Fair Haven, I find
many evidences of spring. . . . The cowslip appears to be coming next to
[skunk cabbage]. Its buds are quite yellowish and half an inch, almost, in
diameter. April 2, 1856
April 2. It is evident that it depends on
the character of the season whether this flower or that is the most forward;
whether there is more or less snow or cold or rain, etc. April 2, 1856
April 3. Evidently you must look very sharp and faithfully to find the first flower, such is the advantage of position, and when you have postponed a flower for a week and are turning away, a little further search may reveal it. Some flowers, perhaps, have advantages one year which they have not the next. April 3, 1853
April 3. Evidently you must look very sharp and faithfully to find the first flower, such is the advantage of position, and when you have postponed a flower for a week and are turning away, a little further search may reveal it. Some flowers, perhaps, have advantages one year which they have not the next. April 3, 1853
April 3. To my great surprise the saxifrage is in bloom. It was, as it were, by mere accident that I found it. I had not observed any particular forwardness in it, when, happening to look under a projecting rock in a little nook on the south side of a stump, I spied one little plant which had opened three or four blossoms high up the Cliff. . . . This spring, as well as the past winter, has been remarkably free from snow, and this reason, and the plant being hardy withal, may account for its early blossoming. With what skill it secures moisture and heat, growing commonly in a little bed of moss which keeps it moist, and lying low in some cleft of the rock! The sunniest and most sheltered exposures possible it secures. This faced the southeast, was nearly a foot under the eaves of the rock, of buds in the least above the level of its projecting, calyx-like leaves. It was shelter within shelter. The blasts sweep over it. Ready to shoot upward when it shall be warm. The leaves of those which have been more exposed are turned red. It is a very pretty, snug plant with its notched leaves, one of the neatest and prettiest leaves seen now. April 3, 1853
April 3. The white maple buds on the south
side of some trees have slightly opened, so that I can peep into their cavities
and detect the stamens. They will probably come next to the skunk-cabbage this
year, if the cowslip does not. April 3, 1856
White maple trees stand
in the midst of the old snow
buds slightly opened.
April 4. I find many sound cabbages
shedding their pollen under Clamshell Hill. . . . This is simply the earliest
flower such a season as this, i. e. when the ground continues covered with snow
till very late in the spring. April 4, 1856
April 5. As I stood on a hill just cut off,
I saw, half a dozen rods below, the bright-yellow catkins of a tall willow just
opened on the edge of the swamp, against the dark-brown twigs and the withered
leaves. This early blossom looks bright and rare amid the withered leaves and
the generally brown and dry surface, like the early butterflies. April 5,
1859
This early blossom,
bright and rare amid the leaves,
like the butterflies.
April 6. Returned by the Dugan Desert and stopped at the mill there to get the aspen flowers. The very earliest aspens, such as grow in warm exposures on the south sides of hills or woods, have begun to be effete. Others are not yet out. April 6, 1858
April 6. On a few small warm shelves under the rocks the saxifrage makes already a pretty white edging along the edge of the grass sod on the rocks; has got up three or four inches, and may have been out four or five days. April 6, 1858
April 6. On a few small warm shelves under the rocks the saxifrage makes already a pretty white edging along the edge of the grass sod on the rocks; has got up three or four inches, and may have been out four or five days. April 6, 1858
White maples resound
with the hum of honey-bees
like a summer dream.
April 7. On the Cliff I find, after long and
careful search, one sedge above the rocks, low amid the withered blades of last
year, out, its little yellow beard amid the dry blades and few green ones, —
the first herbaceous flowering I have detected. April 7, 1854
The hazel stigmas
are well out and catkins loose,
but no pollen shed.
On the Cliff I find,
after long and careful search,
one sedge flowering.
April 7. At six this morn to Clamshell. The
skunk-cabbage open yesterday, — the earliest flower this season. April 7, 1855
April 8. I notice the alder, the A.
serrulata, in blossom, its reddish-brown catkins now lengthened and loose.
What mean the apparently younger small red catkins? [They are the female
aments]. April 8, 1852
April 8. Am surprised to find two crowfoot
blossoms withered. They undoubtedly opened the 5th or 6th; say the last. They
must be earlier here than at the Cliffs, where I have observed them the last
two years. They are a little earlier than the saxifrage around them
here, of which last I find one specimen at last, in a favorable angle of the
rock, just opening. I have not allowed enough for the difference of localities.
The columbine shows the most spring growth of any plant. Journal, April 8, 1854
April 8. The earliest peculiarly woodland
herbaceous flowers are epigaea, anemone, thalictrum, and — by the first of May
— Viola pedata. These grow quite in the woods amid dry leaves, nor
do they depend so much on water as the very earliest flowers. April 8, 1859
April 8 . As to which are the earliest
flowers, it depends on the character of the season, and ground bare or not,
meadows wet or dry, etc., etc., also on the variety of soils and localities
within your reach. April 8, 1855
April 8. I find also at length a single catkin of
the Alnus incana, with a few stamens near the peduncle
discolored and shedding a little dust when shaken; so this must have begun
yesterday. April 8, 1855 See April 10, 1855 ("
Early on the morning of the 8th I paddled up the' Assabet looking for the first
flowers of the white maple and alder. I held on to the low curving twigs of the
maple where the stream ran swiftly, the round clusters of its bursting
flower-buds spotting the sky above me, and on a close inspection found a few
which (as I have said) must have blossomed the day before. I also paddled
slowly along the riverside looking closely at the alder catkins and shaking the
most loose, till at length I came to a bush which had been weighed down by the
ice and whose stem curved downward, passing through the water. and on this was
one looser and more yellowish catkin, which, as I have said, on a close
examination showed some effete anthers near the peduncle “)
Alnus incanta
with a few stamens shedding
near the peduncle.
April 8, 1855
April 8. There, in that slow, muddy
brook near the head of Well Meadow, within a few rods of its source, where it
winds amid the alders, which shelter the plants some what, while they are open
enough now to admit the sun, I find two cowslips in full bloom, shedding pollen;
and they may have opened two or three days ago; for I saw many conspicuous buds
here on the 2d which now I do not see. Have they not been eaten off? Do we
not often lose the earliest flowers thus? A little more, or if the river had
risen as high as frequently, they would have been submerged. What an
arctic voyage was this in which I find cowslips, the pond and river still frozen
over for the most part as far down as Cardinal Shore! April 8, 1856
April 8. The Alnus serrulata is
evidently in its prime considerably later than the incana, for
those of the former which I notice to-day have scarcely begun, while the latter
chance to be done. The fertile flowers are an interesting bright crimson in the
sun. April 8, 1859
The fertile flowers
are an interesting bright
crimson in the sun.
April 8, 1859
April 9. The cowslips are well out, – the first conspicuous herbaceous flower, for the cabbage is concealed in its spathe. April 9, 1853
April 9. [Willow catkins] will perhaps
blossom by day after to morrow, and the hazels on the hillside beyond as soon
at least, if not sooner. They are loose and begin to dangle. The stigmas
already peep out, minute crimson stars. April 9, 1856
April 9. The Alnus incana,
especially by the railroad opposite the oaks, sheds pollen. April 9, 1856 See April
11, 1856 (Paddle under yonder graceful tree which marks where is the bank
of the river, though now it stands in the midst of a flood a quarter of a mile
from land; hold fast by one of its trailing twigs, for the stream runs swiftly
here. See how the tree is covered with great globular clusters of buds. Are
there no anthers nor stigmas to be seen? Look upward to the sunniest side.
Steady! When the boat 'has ceased its swaying, do you not see two or three
stamens glisten like spears advanced on the sunny side of a cluster? Depend on
it, the bees will find it out before noon, far over the flood as it is )
April 9. Early aspen catkins have
curved downward an inch, and began to shed pollen apparently yesterday. April 9, 1856
April 9. White maples also, the sunny sides of clusters and sunny sides of trees in favorable localities, shed pollen to-day. April 9, 1856
April 9. The flowers have blossomed very suddenly this year as soon as the long cold spell was over, and almost all together. As yet the landscape generally wears its November russet. April 9, 1854
April 10. The male red maple buds now
show eight or ten (ten counting everything) scales, alternately crosswise, and
the pairs successively brighter red or scarlet, which will account for the
gradual reddening of their tops. They are about ready to open. April 10,
1853
April 10. The crimson stigmas, like the hazel, of the white maple, generally by themselves, make handsome show. April 10, 1854
April 10. At Lee’s the early sedge; one
only sheds pollen. The saxifrage there to-morrow; one flower is partly
expanded. April 10, 1855
April 10 As for the early sedge, who would think of looking for a flower of any kind in those dry tufts whose withered blades almost entirely conceal the springing green ones? I patiently examined one tuft after another, higher and higher up the rocky hill, till at last I found one little yellow spike low in the grass which shed its pollen on my finger. April 10, 1855
April 10 As for the saxifrage, when I
had given it up for to-day, having, after a long search in the warmest clefts
and recesses, found only three or four buds which showed some white, I at
length, on a still warmer shelf, found one flower partly expanded, and its
common peduncle had shot up an inch. April 10, 1855
April 10. These few earliest flowers .
. .are remote and unobserved and often surrounded with snow, and most have not
begun to think of flowers yet. April 10, 1855
Earliest flowers
bloom when most have not begun
to think of flowers.
April 11.The hazel sheds pollen to-day; some
elsewhere possibly yesterday. April 11, 1856 (You thread your way amid the
rustling oak leaves on some warm hillside sloping to the south, detecting no
growth as yet, unless the flower-buds of the amelanchier are somewhat expanded,
when, glancing along the dry stems, in the midst of all this dryness, you
detect the crimson stigmas of the hazel, like little stars peeping
forth, and perchance a few catkins are dangling loosely in the zephyr and
sprinkling their pollen on the dry leaves beneath)
April 11. Crowfoot (Ranunculus
fascicularis) at Lee's since the 6th, apparently a day or two before
this. Journal, April 11, 1858
April 12. See the first blossoms
(bright-yellow stamens or pistils) on the willow catkins to-day. The speckled
alders and the maples are earlier then. The yellow blossom appears first on one
side of the ament and is the most of bright and sunny color the spring has
shown, the most decidedly flower-like that I have seen. It flowers, then, I
should say, without regard to the skunk-cabbage, q. v. First the speckled
alder, then the maple without keys, then this earliest, perhaps swamp, willow
with its bright-yellow blossoms on one side of the ament. It is fit that
this almost earliest spring flower should be yellow, the color of the
sun. April 12, 1852
Bright-yellow blossoms
on willow catkins today,
color of the sun.
April 12. Golden saxifrage out at Hubbard’s
Close, -- one, at least, effete. It may have been the 10th. April 12, 1855
April 13 One or two crowfoots on Lee's
Cliff, fully out, surprise me like a flame bursting from the russet ground. The
saxifrage is pretty common, ahead of the crowfoot now, and its peduncles have
shot up. Journal, April 13, 1854
April 13. The red maple in a day or two. I begin
to see the anthers in some buds. So much more of the scales of the buds is now
uncovered that the tops of the swamps at a distance are reddened. April 13,
1854
April 13. The common hazel just out. It is
perhaps the prettiest flower of the shrubs that have opened. A little bunch of
(in this case) half a dozen catkins, one and three quarters inches long,
trembling in the wind, shedding golden pollen on the hand, and, close by, as
many minute, but clear crystalline crimson stars at the end of a bare and
seemingly dead twig. For two or three days in my walks, I had given the
hazel catkins a fillip with my finger under their chins to see if they were in
bloom, but in vain; but here, on the warm south side of a wood, I find one bunch
fully out and completely relaxed. They know when to trust themselves to the
weather. April 13, 1855
April 13. Epigaea abundantly out, maybe four
or five days. April 13, 1858
April 14. White maples are now generally in bloom. April 14, 1855
April 15 The broad flat brown buds on Mr. Cheney's elm, containing twenty or thirty yellowish-green threads, surmounted with little brownish-mulberry cups, which contain the stamens and the two styles, -- these are just expanding or blossoming now. April 15, 1852
April 14. White maples are now generally in bloom. April 14, 1855
April 15 The broad flat brown buds on Mr.
Cheney's elm, containing twenty or thirty yellowish-green threads, surmounted
with little brownish-mulberry cups, which contain the stamens and the two
styles, -- these are just expanding or blossoming now. April 15, 1852
April 15. The arrival of the purple finches
appears to be coincident with the blossoming of the elm, on whose blossom it
feeds. April 15, 1854
April 16. The Stellaria media and
shepherd’s-purse out. April 16, 1856. See April 2, 1856 ("Some of the earliest
plants are now not started because covered with snow, as the stellaria and
shepherd’s purse.”); April 14, 1855 ("Most of the stellaria has
been winter-killed, but I find a few flowers on a protected and still green
sprig, probably not blossomed long.”); April 25, 1855 ("Shepherd’s-purse will bloom
to-day”).
April 17. . The second sallow catkin (or any
willow) I have seen in blossom —there are three or four catkins on the twig
partly open —I am about to clutch, but find already a bee curved close on each
half-opened catkin, intoxicated with its early sweet. April 17, 1855
Quickly and surely
the bee finds the first flower
before the poet.
April 17. So quickly and surely does a bee
find the earliest flower, as if he had slumbered all winter at the root of the
plant. No matter what pains you take, probably —undoubtedly—an insect will have
found the first flower before you. April 17, 1855
How pleasing the sounds
awakened nature in spring
first humming of bees.
April 18. The most interesting fact,
perhaps, at present is these few tender yellow blossoms, these half-expanded
sterile aments of the willow, seen through the rain and cold, — signs of the
advancing year, pledges of the sun's return. April 18, 1852
April 18. Common saxifrage and also early
sedge I am surprised to find abundantly out. April 18, 1856
April 18. Columbine, and already eaten by
bees. Some with a hole in the side. April 18, 1856
April 18. Red maple stamens in some places
project considerably, and it will probably blossom to-morrow if it is
pleasant. April 18, 1856
April 19. Viola ovata on bank
above Lee's Cliff. April 19, 1858
April 20. Arbor-vitae? apparently in full
bloom. April 20, 1857
April 21. These are those early times when the
rich golden-brown tassels of the alders tremble over the brooks — and not a
leaf on their twigs.
These early times when
golden-brown alder tassels
tremble over brooks.
April 21, 1854
April 22. The early sedge (Carex marginata) grows
on the side of the Cliffs in little tufts with small yellow blossoms, i.e. with
yellow anthers, low in the grass.
April 22. Meadow sweet in some places
begins to open to-day; also barberry under Cliffs and a moss rose
tomorrow. Say earliest gooseberry, then elder, raspberry, thimble berry,
and low blackberry (the last two under rocks), then wild red cherry, then black
currant (yesterday), then meadow sweet, and barberry under Cliff,
to-day. April 22, 1855
April 23. The red maple did not shed pollen
on the 19th and could not on the 20th, 21st, or 22d, on account of rain; so
this must be the first day, — the 23d. April 23, 1856
April 24 . The Equisetum arvense on the causeway
sheds its green pollen, which looks like lint on the hand abundantly, and may
have done so when I first saw it upon the 21st, April 24, 1855
April 25. Shepherd’s-purse will bloom
to-day. April 25, 1855
April 25. The Viola blanda are numerously open [at Corner Spring], say two days at least. April 25, 1859
April 25. The Viola blanda are numerously open [at Corner Spring], say two days at least. April 25, 1859
April 26. The blossoms of the red maple
(some a yellowish green) are now most generally conspicuous and handsome
scarlet crescents over the swamps. April 26, 1859
April 27. I find to-day for the first time
the early saxifrage (Saxifraga vernalis) in blossom, growing high and
dry in the narrow seams, where there is no soil for it but a little green moss.
. . . The half-open buds of the saxifrage, showing the white of the petals in a
corymb or cyme, on a short stem, surrounded by its new leaves mingled with the
purplish tips of the calyx-leaves, is handsomer than when it is fully expanded.
April 27, 1852
April 27. Also the first plantain-leaved
everlasting (Gray's Antennaria plantaginifolia) is in blossom in a
sheltered place in the grass at the top of the rock. April 27, 1852
April 28. Are not the flowers which appear
earliest in the spring the most primitive and simplest? Thus we have in
the spring of the year the spring of the world
represented. April 28, 1852
Spring flowers flash out,
the blossom precedes the leaf.
Suddenly blooming.
April 29. At the Second Division Brook the
cowslip is in blossom. April 29, 1852
April 29. A few of the cones within reach on F. Monroe’s larches shed pollen; say, then, yesterday. The crimson female flowers are now handsome but small. April 29, 1855. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau. the Larch in Spring
April 29. The white cedar now sheds pollen abundantly. Many flowers are effete, though many are not open. Probably it began as much as three days ago. I strike a twig, and its peculiar pinkish pollen fills the air. April 29, 1856
April 29. The white cedar now sheds pollen abundantly. Many flowers are effete, though many are not open. Probably it began as much as three days ago. I strike a twig, and its peculiar pinkish pollen fills the air. April 29, 1856
April 30. Columbine just
out; one anther sheds. April 30, 1855
By looking very carefully
in the most favored and warmest localities,
you may find most flowers out
some weeks even in advance
of the rest of their kind.
May 18, 1853
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau
"A book, each page written in its own season,
out-of-doors, in its own locality."
~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2020
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