Early-Spring Flowers

     Although our calendars say spring begins on March 20th, I think the vernal season starts during the second week in February here in southeastern Pennsylvania.  I base my judgement on the migrations of swans, geese, ducks and blackbirds in February and March, and American robins' arrival here early in March.  Also, several kinds of small, permanent resident birds sing during warm afternoons in February and March.  Wood frogs and spotted salamanders spawn during the first prolonged rains in March.  And the blooming of several kinds of hardy flowering plants at one time or another in those two months.  All these early signs of spring's arrival are welcome to many people weary of winter.
     Native to eastern North America, skunk cabbage hoods emerge abundantly from muck, inch-deep water or snow in bottomland woods by the beginning of February in southeastern Pennsylvania.  Each of those two-inch, green and purplish-brown hoods protects a fleshy ball, spotted with tiny flowers.  An opening on one side of each hood allows early flies and other insects access to those small blooms to sip nectar, pollinating those blossoms n the process.
     Native spring witch hazel shrubs have several long, thin, twisted, yellow petals per flower by early February in this area.  The many blooms on each witch hazel bush certainly brighten their corners of the lawns they were planted on, bringing a prelude of spring to the home owners.
     Snow drops and winter aconites are two species of ground-hugging plants originally from Eurasia.  They both sprout early in February in this area, from bulbs planted on lawns and flower beds the autumn before.  Snow drops have grass-like leaves and lovely white flowers that droop, looking like drops of snow in early February.  But when those pretty blooms open, they resemble tiny bells that seem to tinkle in the wind.            
     Each aconite has a ring of small, scalloped leaves almost on the ground and one cheery-looking, upright, yellow bloom by the middle of February.  Snow drops and aconites both spread year after year, from their original plantings across lawns and woodland floors, appearing as if they are native wild flowers.  They are wild, but not native here.
     Popular and handsome, male pussy willow shrubs have furry, gray, upright catkins that are quite attractive by early March in this area.  Again from Europe originally, these willows can be started by putting twig cuttings in containers of water until they grow roots, then plant them in soil and watch them grow and grow. 
     Pussy willows feed and house several kinds of wildlife.  Early insects sip nectar from their catkins, common lawn birds nest among their twigs, Japanese beetles ingest their leaves, willow aphids suck the sugary sap of their younger, softer bark and cottontail rabbits eat their bark and twigs in winter.
     Silver maple trees are native to moist bottomlands along creeks and streams in eastern North America.  They have many small, dull-red blooms by the end of February into March, making the bottomlands, and the lawns they were planted on, more attractive.
     Silver maples' winged seeds are developed by late spring and twirl on the wind away from the parent trees.  Many of those seeds, however, are eaten by a variety of rodents.
     Silver maples break down easily in strong winds, causing hollows of various sizes in the trunks where limbs were ripped off, exposing the wood under the bark to agents of decay.  Squirrels, raccoons, wood ducks, barred owls and other critters live and raise young in those cavities.
     Crocuses are from Eurasia, but planted abundantly on lawns and in flower beds in the United States.  Each simple plant has a few grass-like leaves and one large, beautiful flower that has white, yellow or deep-purple petals.  And all crocus blossoms have orange stamens, making pretty color combinations on our lawns in March.
     Hazelnut shrubs and speckled alder shrubs each have male catkins that grow up to two inches long, droop from their twigs and sway in the wind.  Hazelnut shrubs also have tiny, red female flowers of a few petals, from which grow their nuts that feed white-tailed deer, black bears, squirrels, deer mice, wild turkeys and other kinds of wildlife.
     Alder catkins are a lovely deep-purple.  Their female blooms grow attractive, half-inch cones that house alder seeds until they are mature.                
     Scilla is another kind of simple, ground-hugging plant from Europe that has lovely, sky-blue blossoms on lawns and in flower beds during mid-March.  Scilla, too spreads from where it was planted, making some lawns look like they are reflecting a clear sky.   
     Red maple trees in damp, wooded bottomlands, and on lawns where they were planted, have pretty, red blooms toward the end of March.  The canopies of some woodland swamps are red with maple flowers at that time, while male spring peeper frogs peep and male pickerel frogs snore in shallow water under those red canopies.  Those frogs call out at dusk and into the night to attract females of their respective kinds for spawning in the shallows.   
     These early-spring blooms help remove the sting of winter here in southeastern Pennsylvania.  And they help make one believe that spring is here by the second week in February.