Tree Buds in Your Neighborhood
It feels like spring today. I can see buds on many of the trees in my neighborhood. For example, here's a neighbor's box elder tree:(Click on any of these photos to see full-size images.)
Looking across the street, I see another neighbor's red maple tree is also budding out:
But wait? Are those really leaf buds? I took a closer look at the twigs:
 The box elder twig |
 The red maple twig |
They sure don't look like little leaves. So I looked really closely. Guess what I saw:
 Box elder flowers |
 Red maple flowers |
It turns out, a lot of trees have flowers, but you don't often notice them because they are so small. The flowers on maple trees will eventually grow into seed pods that spin in circles as they fall to the ground. (A box elder tree is also a type of maple tree.)
Acorns will form at the base of these oak tree flowers.
(This
is not my photo. I found it on the internet.)Early spring is a good time to look very closely at the buds that you see on trees and bushes. Are they leaf buds or flower buds? You might have to check several times over a week or so to know for sure.
Many trees will make flowers now, before their leaves come out. Trees depend on bees and insects to spread their pollen around. Why do you think some trees have their flowers come out before their leaves?
So here's your assignment: Look at the trees growing around your home. Do any of them have buds? Are they going to be leaves or flowers?
If you take any photos of the buds you see on trees or bushes, email them to me at gsimonelli@leffellschool.org and I will put together an online photo gallery of everyone's photos. And if you can tell me the name of the tree in the photo, that's even better. But send me your photos either way.
Go to the Gallery.
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