The First Spring Flowers

by Bob Armstrong and Marge Hermans from Southeast 's Natural World

149 Why would a flower bloom The blooming of early in April in Southeast Alaska, when blueberries in Southeast there’s still a chance of snow and cold coincides with the weather? The reasons might be related to arrival of rufous pollination, the transfer of pollen (contain- and the ing male sex cells) from the male part of a emergence of queen flower to the female part, or from male to bumblebees. female flowers. Pollination is necessary to produce seeds, one of the ways in which reproduce. The blossoms of early blueberries gen- We can think of a number of ways that erally appear before the leaves on the bush being first out of the starting gate would have developed, so they stand out in the (Preceding page) help plants with pollination. Perhaps com- forest like thousands of tiny, pink Japanese Rufous petition for insects or birds to help with lanterns. They are one of the only flowers approaching an early pollination is lower early in the season, or available for the nectar-sipping rufous hum- blueberry in blossom. perhaps a special pollinator is around then. mingbirds that return to Southeast each Perhaps it’s easier for a flower to be seen spring after wintering in Mexico. Blueberries when other plants around it are not yet also may be pollinated by early emerging blooming. Perhaps flowering early in the queen bumblebees. spring allows more time and energy for Early bumblebees are probably impor- Purple mountain growing during the rest of the summer. tant to another early blossoming flower in saxifrage often blooms Early blueberries ( ovalifolium) Southeast: purple mountain saxifrage in mid-April as soon grow as shrubs usually three to five feet (Saxifrage oppositifolia). Saxifrage flowers may as the snow has melted. tall. Found widely throughout Southeast be seen less frequently than others because It usually grows on forests, forest openings, and bogs, they they tend to bloom on rocky outcroppings rocky outcroppings often grow intermingled with Alaska blue- that may be surrounded by snow and not near glaciers and in the berries (Vaccinium alaskaense), which bloom easy to reach until after the flowers are gone. alpine. later and which many Alaskans call black Near sea level purple mountain saxifrage are huckleberry. often found close to glaciers, on places such as the exposed rock at the face of Menden- hall Glacier in Juneau. The flowers of purple mountain saxi- frage are probably pollinated by queen bum- blebees, which overwinter by hibernating in the frozen soil. The bees emerge about the same time the saxifrage blossoms open and are believed to be especially attracted to the purple flowers. Feeding on both pollen and nectar, the bees gather particles of pollen on their hairy bodies and carry them from flower to flower. The bright yellow flags of skunk cabbage (Lysichitum americanum) often emerge even before the snow is gone in damp, marshy places throughout South-

150 east Alaska. Enclosed within a protective year long, and in winter it provides impor- sheath, hundreds of tiny flowers cluster on tant forage for . In spring, its delicate, a candle-shaped stalk, or spadix. The flowers hardly-noticeable flowers burst like tiny attract hundreds of tiny beetles (Pelecomalius comets trailing miniscule streams of light testaceum) that come to feed on the pollen against the forest floor. the flowers produce and end up carrying We were curious about what pollinates pollen particles from flower to flower and these tiny, early-blooming flowers. Upon to plant. close examination we saw tiny flies and Our friend Mary Willson, an ecologist in Juneau, said skunk cabbage plants probably come up in spring as soon as the water in the ground around them is slightly above freez- ing. She said early blooming probably helps The fern-leaved assure that beetle pollinators will find skunk goldthread appears to cabbage plants before they are hidden by the be pollinated by tiny growth of other forest vegetation. flies and small beetles. What helps pollinate the delicate blos- soms of the fern-leaved goldthread (Coptis beetles crawling on them eating both pollen asplenifolia)? The diminutive goldthread and nectar. grows in deep forests throughout Southeast, According to Willson the most common often amid moss. Its leaves stay green all of these pollinators are dance flies.

Skunk cabbage often grows in large patches in Southeast. Deer eat the emerging blossoms and leaves, and bears eat the stems below ground level in the fall.

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