first day of spring -- snow

first day of spring -- snow

crocuses open frail petals 

among dead oak leaves

When I leave home on 17 March, it's still winter in Iowa, 14 degrees F with snow on the ground. By the time I park at my sister's home, 100 miles southwest in Kansas, spring has already arrived, with St. Patrick's Day green erupting from bare ground.

On the sunny Spring Equinox, the lilac buds of the snow crocuses open, but instead of poking through snow, they are thrusting up through a thick layer of dry oak leaves. 

These appear to be the wild variety, C. tommasinianus. Some intrepid "tommies" are springing straight up through gravel, their delicate petals as luminescent as stained glass.

Six pointed purple petals form a chalice for three inward curving golden anthers surmounted by a ruffled tripartite stigma.

The pollen, the color of turmeric, is so heavy it's spilling onto the delicate petals. No bees in sight, but the sticky stigma will remain moist for quite a long time, waiting for a princess charming to give it a pollinating nuzzle.

a carpet of pink

a carpet of pink

petals beneath the Saucer

Magnolia's out flung arms

On the Spring Equinox, a magnificent Saucer Magnolia, covered with a froth of pink blossoms, puts on a grand display of the beauty of spring. The fragile flowers, blown by the wind, drift down like pink snow, carpeting the grass with pink petals. This ornamental tree, which originated in China, is also called Tulip Magnolia because of the vase-like shape of the flowers before they fully open. The strange spell of hot weather in early March has given the Magnolias in our area a rare chance to come into full bloom, and the air all around the tree is filled with the sweet scent. Many a spring, the blossoms open only to turn brown during a late frost.
          Scientists say that Magnolia blossoms are some of the most primitive of flowers. If you look at the center of the petals, you will see what looks like a red tassel. A closer look at this reproductive structure reveals many curled stigma. When fertilized, the stigma develop into an aggregate fruit like a blackberry, except Magnolia fruits are hard and dry rather than soft and juicy. The seed head looks quite exotic, like a turban with bright red beads popping out from a cone of curved pouches. The leaves, which begin to appear as the blossoms drop, are wide, pointed at the tip, deep green and quite leathery, turning a golden brown when they in turn fall, smothering anything that attempts to grow beneath the tree. Even so, one can see why the Magnolia is a favorite ornamental specimen tree.