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Phenology Report: June brings flowers and flies

A Canada tiger swallowtail butterfly perches on a flower. This butterfly has yellow wings with black stripes on the forewing and a black border. In the background is grass and a sidewalk.
Contributed
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Photo by iNaturalist user rangersara
A Canada tiger swallowtail butterfly perches on a flower.

KAXE Staff Phenologist John Latimer provides his weekly assessment of nature in Northern Minnesota. This is the week of June 6, 2023.

As we march into June, John Latimer can’t help but look back at a remarkable May.

We went into the month after a cold April, with phenological events lagging far behind averages. (John was predicting it’d be among the top five latest springs!) Things turned around quickly though: May had the sixth-warmest temperatures on record, bringing phenological events back to their usual timing (or even earlier, in some cases).

For instance, the red maple was 14 days late when it flowered, but a day early when it leafed out two weeks later. In that brief window, it made up for lost time.

Please note as schools let out for the summer, we become more and more hungry for reports for our Phenology Talkbacks segment. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with your observations, nature tales and insights! Get in touch with me (smitchell@kaxe.org), John Latimer (jlatimer@kaxe.org), or text "phenology" to 218-326-1234.

A seasonal switcheroo

A red columbine is dotted by morning dew. The foreground shows a red flower with yellow insides and stamens, and a green pistil. The red outer parts of the flower show tiny droplets of water. The flower has five red spikes or trumpet-shaped structures connected at the center. At the base of each spike is a small knob that contains nectar.
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iNaturalist user autrpy
A red columbine is dotted by morning dew. These plants emerged from the ground two days late in 2023, but flowered two days earlier than is typical.

Other events also caught up or surpassed averages: the bluebead lily is at its peak bloom on time, along with the starflower and yellow lady slippers. Other plants mentioned include the sarsaparilla (eight days early), Canada mayflower (one day early), columbine (two days late emerging from the ground, two days early flowering), bunchberry (two days early), yellow pond lily (one day early), smooth vetch (four days early), pale vetchling (four days early), maiden pink (five days early), smooth rose (three days early) and white campion (one day early).

John and fellow phenologist Dallas Hudson compared yearly records and found 2023 was close to the latest spring on record at the beginning of the month. By the end of May, phenological events were on the earlier side of the scale! As John pointed out, “You just never know with nature and with climate and with the plants and animals we’re dealing with.”

Plant Progression

 One of John Latimer's favorite flowers, the maiden pink. It has five petals and an extremely bright pink color. The petals have small serrations at their tips.
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Photo by iNaturalist user lynnharper
One of John Latimer's favorite flowers, the maiden pink.

Fruiting:

  • Forbs: Wood anemone. 

Done flowering:

  • Forbs: wood anemone. 
  • Shrubs: Nannyberry, black chokeberry (domestic variety), Northern gooseberry, choke cherry. 
  • Trees: Balsam fir, spruce. 

Peak flowering:

  • Forbs: Bluebead lily, yellow lady slippers, starflower, Canada mayflower, wild columbine or honeysuckle, bunchberries, yellow pond lily, smooth vetch, maiden pinks, smooth rose, toadflax, red clover, white campion. 
  • Shrubs: Pagoda or alternate-leaf dogwood, red osier dogwood, round-leaf dogwood. 
  • Trees: White pines, Jack pines. 

Begun flowering:

  • Shrubs: Black chokeberry (native variety), mountain maple. 
  • Forbs: Sarsaparilla, hawkweed. 

Not yet flowering:

  • Trees: Red pines. 
  • Forbs: Goatsbeard. 

Plants for closer examination

 A Canada mayflower blooms on the forest understory. The plant has two smooth green leaves and a white cluster of small flowers.
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Photo by iNaturalist user kenkneidel
A Canada mayflower blooms on the forest understory.

Canada mayflower, sometimes called the false lily-of-the-valley, has a 2-inch column of tiny white flowers. When pollinated, these flowers become little red fruits in the fall. These fruits, although they have sugar, have such a large seed they’re not useful for making jam.

Wild columbine, often called honeysuckle due to the globes of nectar on the back of their flower spikes, have red flowers with yellow insides. Wild columbine is a 1- or 2-foot forb with hummingbird-pollinated flowers. The flowers have long trumpet-like spikes leading back to the nectar-storing capsules at the back of the plant.

True honeysuckles, in contrast, are woody shrubs. Our native honeysuckles have twin yellow flowers and are done flowering for the season. The tartarian honeysuckle, which is non-native, is in flower and has pink and white flowers. So, if you spot an opposite-branched shrub in your yard or forest with pink and white flowers right now, you may want to investigate its species in case it needs to be removed. They can take over and eliminate native species.

Bunchberry, a type of dogwood, is a pretty astonishing plant. Instead of relying on wind or animal pollination, it mechanically launches its pollen using what are essentially spring-loaded stamens. You can watch a slow-motion video of this process here! It is one of the fastest naturally occurring movements in the world, producing forces four times that of gravity.

Vetches and vetchlings are climbing plants that have ornate and intricate flowers. If you’re familiar with pea plants, they are similar (and even in the same family). The smooth vetch has purple flowers, while the pale vetchling has creamy white flowers.

Maiden pinks are a vibrant pink flower that grows in pastures and hay fields.

White campions are flowering: these ubiquitous flowers are white with five bifurcated petals and a large ovary behind the flower. When the seeds are ripe, John estimates their size to be three-eighths of an inch long and a quarter-inch wide.

American Woodcocks, turtles, and skunks

American Woodcock walk

A listener named Carolyn called in Tuesday morning, June 6, to mention she saw American Woodcock poults with their mother. The chicks are old enough to fly, and she was able to observe them doing their distinctive woodcock walk.

While turtles are busy laying eggs, skunks are just as busy digging them back up and eating them. John’s tried to protect a few nests, so here’s hoping he’s successful!

Butterfly breeding

 A viceroy butterfly sits on a bergamot flower. It has orange and black wings like a monarch buttterfly, but has a black line going through the hind wings that monarchs lack. The flower it is sitting on is purple, and there are green leaves in the blurry background.
Contributed
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Flickr user USFWS Midwest region
A viceroy butterfly sits on a bergamot flower. It has orange and black wings like a monarch buttterfly, but has a black line going through the hind wings that monarchs lack.

The Canada tiger swallowtails have been flocking to puddles, where they collect minerals from wet soils. Generally, males exhibit this behavior: then, they show their aptitude as mates by providing the female with a packet of minerals and energy to help her lay the eggs.

White admiral butterflies are back, as well as the viceroy. The viceroy looks like a smaller, faster version of a monarch, but is not poisonous to predators.

As John points out, “The viceroy is not chemically protected by eating milkweed the way the monarch is, but the viceroy copies the monarch color in its wings and hopes that birds will look at it and go, ‘Oh, those things taste awful. I’m not going to eat that one.’”

Buzz buzz, bite bite

Deer tick nymphs

Horseflies and deerflies have emerged to supplement the mosquito-and-tick army of bloodsucking critters. Horseflies tend to linger around water, while deer flies are found about anywhere.

“Not enough of them are stuck in spider webs yet,” John said. “But it’s coming, and every one of those that’s lost is a victory for me.”

While on his phenology walk last week, John felt a bit creepy-crawly. On further examination, he discovered he was covered in deer tick nymphs: young ticks that are just half the size of adult deer ticks. John ended up finding a half-dozen of the little nuisances. These little nymphs are so small they’re hard to feel and hard to grab: John had a hard time getting hold of them, even with tweezers.

“Be careful if you are outside,” John concludes. “The mosquitos are not going to [bother you], but it’s the little deer ticks that are going to get on you that are going to bring the diseases. So be alert.”


That does it for this week! For more phenology, subscribe to our Season Watch Newsletter or visit the Season Watch Facebook page.

Funding for this project was provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR).

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Charlie Mitchell (she/they) joined the KAXE team in February of 2022. Charlie creates the Season Watch Newsletter, writes segment summaries for the website, and coordinates our Engaging Minnesotans with Phenology project. With a background in wildlife biology, she enjoys learning a little bit about everything, whether it's plants, mushrooms, aquatic invertebrates, or the short-tailed shrew (did you know they can echolocate?).