April, 2015 Plant hunt summary

An unusually cold winter contributed to a late spring with most flowers blooming at least 2 weeks behind normal schedule.  In 2013 provincially rare Harbinger of Spring (Erigenia bulbosa) began blooming on April 9th.  This year it bloomed on April 18th.  Moreover, this is the first time that I have observed  blooming on May 1st.  Surveys of this population of E. bulbosa exhibited a marked increase in the total number of plants by 2.5 x with 288 plants counted. Of these 198 were 2 leaved plants and 2 were seedlings.  No seedlings were found in 2014.

A field training course at Cawthra Woods, Mississauga, Ontario for the Association for Canadian Education Resources/Climate's Sake (ACER) staff contributed three new flowering date records for Peel region - all of which were cultivated or introduced species; Siberian squill (Scilla siberica), Croccus (Croccus longiflorus) and Grape hyacinth (Muscari botyroides).  We also discovered a new record for Witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) and European spindletree (Euonymus europaea), but these shrubs were not flowering.  I would like to thank ACER for hosting a great day with their staff.

Staff from ACER at Tree & Shrub field training course at Cawthra Woods, Mississauga, Ontario (Photo: Dave Jolly)

A total of 18 counties were inventoried during the month of April; Brant, Cochrane, Elgin, Grey, Halton, Hamilton, Middlesex, Muskoka, Norfolk, Oxford, Peel, Simcoe, Sudbury, Toronto, Nippissing, Temiskaming, Waterloo and York.  New records for Sudbury county included Large toothed aspen (Populus grandidentata) and Silver maple (Acer saccharinum).  These were also new species added for Nippissing county, while Large toothed aspen was new for Cochrane county and Speckled alder (Alnus incana) was new for Temiskaming county.  Two hundred and eighty records were tallied with a 51 species recorded.  The highest number of species recorded in the month of April was set in 2012 with 210 species.  

I would like to thank Yves Scholten for contributing a record for Sharp-lobed hepatica (Anemone acutiloba) in Halton region on April 12th and Dean Fitzgerald for contributing a new record for Waterloo region of Bethlehem sage (Pulmonaria officinalis) on April 30th.

We are pleased to ccongratulate Kim McCormack, who took our Level 1 & 2 FBT terrestrial plant + Level 3 Asters and Goldenrods of Ontario courses in 2013, for getting a job with Credit Valley Conservation as their Natural Areas Inventory Assistant!  Kim will be continuing to expand and sharpen her vascular plant field ID skills as one of my apprentices by accompanying me on EARTHQUEST projects and performing plant surveys.  If you wish to assist with these  endeavours to contribute to worthwhile projects simply contact me at; earthquestcanadaATyahoo.com.  The projects we're targeting in 2015 are;

1.  Bruce Trail Project; hiking along the trail (white blazed) from Dundas to Burlington for the Bruce Trail Conservancy (volunteer)
2.  Ruthven National Historic Site vegetation surveys around their mist nets to assess which fruits the birds are eating during migration (volunteer)
3.  Field Botanists of Ontario (FBO) field trip in search of SAR and rare plants of Turkey Point ($20 participation fee which goes to the FBO - volunteer)
4.  Various site visits to natural areas in Ontario to contribute to the master EARTHQUEST Plants of Ontario database (volunteer)

As a correction to the April summary Brian Popelier was kind enough to submit 30 additional records for Grey & Hamilton county as well as Halton region.  His discovery of Daphne (Daphne mezereum) is a new record for Grey county!

To view the revised 2015 April summary please download here