Nature Calendar, more than four seasons, a guide to wildflowers, wild food, and wildlife activities with 19 distinct seasonal transitions

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Introduction

Predictability – flowers don’t bloom at same time in different places; but they bloom at pretty much the same time any given place each year.

Synchronicity - Not only does one plant bloom at same time each year, the condition that trigger one plant or animal to do something is triggering several others. There will be a cluster of plants in bloom together at the same time each year. Thus each season presents an association of flowers and natural events – with its own mood and sensory display. The scientific study of this process is called phenology.

Subdivision - There are more than 4 seasons. Most flowers do not stay in bloom for months. There is a sequence of flowers coming into bloom at intervals throughout the growing season. I have divided the year into 19 distinct seasons, each with a set of “indicator plants” which tend to be the most reliable markers for each season.

Adjustable timetables - What sets the timing for each successive wave of activity are basic environmental conditions: day length, temperature, soil moisture, sun and wind exposure, latitude and elevation above sea level. These are all knowable features, some permanent and some variable due to weather conditions. If you start with a map of the fixed elements (such as the plant hardiness zones I have provided) you can fine tune any season’s arrival time on the basis of local weather conditions preceding it and the elevation and exposure in a particular spot.

A work in progress – I’m not a botanist. This scheme is one I invented based on my own observations, tracking dates and places over years of outdoor excursions. There are sure to be mistakes and omissions, particularly at the northern and southern edges of the territory. Global warming has complicated the matter by enticing some plants and animals to start earlier in the spring or keep going later into the fall (those that are most responsive to temperature) while others continue to heed only day length triggers. Consequently the spring and fall seasons are going to be the most erratic. Seasons may be compressed and even overlap due to weather patterns. (In a particularly compressed season, my rule of thumb is that a season is at its peak when the “early birds” from the next season get to be as numerous as the “stragglers” from the last.)

More to come – This web site is under construction. I will be making improvements, updating information, correcting errors, adding new photographs, and offering variety of products based on this system of tracking seasonal events.

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Last Updated: July 26 2009