Spring Wildflowers Bring Color to the Shore

It has been a very unusual spring so far. On top of everything, wildflowers seem  to be blooming a few weeks earlier than usual this year, a perception of mine based on past averages.

With all the rain in March and the above normal temperatures in April, the Jersey Shore is gradually turning green and coming alive with herring, Ospreys, Striped Bass, songbirds, and the emergence of color from shadbush, maples , and a palette of wildflowers.  Life is rushing back to the tidewaters and nearby land, charged up and ready to go for another season of breeding, blooming, and bursting forth with new life.

(Shadbush in bloom)

For some, one of the first signs that spring has actually arrived are the displays of wildflowers, especially the Shadbush. The blossoming of the Shadbush coincides with the annual herring run. Little fish about 10 inches long are thrashing and swimming upstream seeking freshwater streams and creeks where their lives began about three years earlier.

For other folks, a sign of spring arrival is when the Bumblebees are flying around low to the ground in our local mixed oak or pine forests. The large, over-winter queens are out now and scouting the area for potential nest sites.

(Violets in bloom at Sandy Hook)

Often, though, many other bees and air-breathing invertebrates are seeking their first meal from blooming wildflowers and trees. The daffodils, cherries, maples, magnolias, forsythia in full bloom, beach plum, and honeysuckle all present a most welcome appetizing buffet after a dark, cold and snowy winter season.

By now, many of the wind pollinated trees and shrubs, such as maples, walnuts, and willows are or have been in full bloom. These plants have evolved over time to continue their species by spreading their pollen and seeds by the wind. The wind-pollinated trees appear in the early spring when leaves are not yet present to interfere with pollen movement. As time goes along, the seeds tend to be high up on the trees where they are also exposed to the wind.

(Maple tree seeds ready to be dispersed by the wind)

Closer to the ground, the Bloodroot has or will soon bloom with a brilliant white flower. This plant gets its name from the red juice in the fleshy root. As legend go, Native Americans would use the reddish-brown juice from the Bloodroot as a dye for their clothes, mats, or other materials.

(Bloodroot in bloom)

Along freshwater waterways, early spring is also a good time to start finding fiddleheads, which for some folks is an early spring delicacy. Nearly all ferns have fiddleheads. Tightly coiled fern "fiddleheads" push up through moist, damp dead leaves. Slowly, these fiddleheads will uncoil upward and unfurl outward until the ferns reach their full height. For Native Americans, fiddleheads were one of the earliest vegetable foods available towards the end of a very hungry winter season.

(Lively fern "fiddleheads" pushing up through the damp forest floor)

The blossoms from the trees and flowers near the Jersey Shore provide a brief splash

of color on the landscape floor. These plants take full advantage of their brief moment in the sun to blossom and start the reproduction cycle early before disease sets in, droughts, or before taller trees acquire their leaves to block out the sun.

Head out now and look for all these wild spring treasures. Look for buds on plants to swell and burst. Enjoy the tiny, green leaves on trees and plants. Look for forests to obtain a bright, green color from ongoing foliage development.

The steady spread of color along the Jersey Shore from the yellow forsythia to the stark white of Beach Plum is like a light going on along the Jersey Shore. Spring has arrived! Go out now and enjoy the show while it lasts.