Seattle Tours

.
Well, well. Intentions don't get us very far, sometimes. The cold and wet have kept your (un)faithful correspondent indoors for the several months, and few pictures have been snapped. The notion that this blog would become devoted to disappearing buildings went by the wayside.

But, ah ha! Spring is here. And the camera has been dusted off.

This first post of the year is devoted to our local harbinger of spring, the indian plum (Oemlaria cerasiformis). This is a woody shrub, member of the rose family, that blooms before any other native plant (that i know of) in the lowland coniferous forests of the northwest. Its buds can be observed in early February, and its flowers begin to emerge in the middle-to-later parts of the month, barely preceding the leaves. Below you see a nice closeup that i pulled off the web, since my camera seemed unable to focus on these small flowers, no more than a centimeter across. You can see the common rosaceous characteristics: five petals, many stamens, and the hint of a floral cup.















The early growth of indian plum does not obey the typical definitions of "growing season" used by regulators , which rely only on air temperatures (see link, esp. pages 21-24). If the term "growing season" was defined by what plants are actually doing, regulators would be forced to consider many additional areas as wetlands, areas which therefore would not be as easily filled and paved over. To wit: many spots that remain wet for a large portion of the year are currently ignored, because groundwater levels are just low enough at the beginning of the (conveniently defined) "growing season" to omit them from regulatory consideration.

Indian plum is not a wetland plant, but it is an indicator of spring, and its early growth shows that biologic activity does not turn on or off at a single air temperature. Below is a picture of indian plum taken on March 13 in the Magnolia neighborhood of Seattle, showing its tiny white flowers and cucumber-flavored leaves.