March 22, 2008
Flowers up Close and Personal
Red Maple (Acer rubrum) and Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum)
It was a surprise to some people who attended this program to learn that the plants in flower on the Reservation in mid-March are mostly trees: Maples, Elms, Aspens, and Willows. All broadleaf trees are Angiosperms: They produce flowers - and fruit with seeds in them. The trees that are in flower now are pollinated by the wind, so they do not need showy flowers that attract insects (which in March are scarce.)