We know it is hard not to long for mountain trails during COVID-19 stay-at-home orders with the signs of spring popping up every day. However, it is best to stay safe with backyard and walkable nature outings where physical distancing practices are followed. We have some suggested activities you might enjoy from your home.

Learn:
We presented a recent webinar focused on Northeast alpine research that you can view here: https://bit.ly/Citizen-Science-Webinar-15Apr2020 where we included some initial project results at the end. We found that iNaturalist observers catch the earliest flowering times for some alpine species compared to our plot method and the spatial coverage was greatly expanded by volunteers like you! We will be sharing more of our project results soon.

Curate:
If you know your Red Trillium from your Painted Trillium consider climbing to the top of a species identifier board. By helping to identify species on iNaturalist and confirming others identifications you can help create more Research Grade data. For our project we spent a lot of time checking the identification of our target alpine species but as new observations come in more will need to be curated. Once an observation is added to our projects we also have phenology Observation Fields that follow the National Phenology Network protocol definitions. If you would like to learn more about helping us fill out these fields and want additional training you can message gmurray in iNaturalist.

Create:
You can still create data by going through photos on your mobile device or camera from years past not yet uploaded to iNaturalist. For our study we want photos of the same plant, along the same trail, every spring. So please include all your past mountain flower photos that have geolocation information to create a robust phenology picture!

Happy 50th Earth Day!

Thank you for contributing 607 observations in June from 103 observers!

Summer is here. Although some of our target species can still be seen flowering at high elevations, many have moved on to their fruiting phases. Fruit are also important to document as the next phenological phase of the flowering plant and an important food source for all kinds of birds, insects, and small mammals.

Keep a look out for budding and flowering Bluebead Lily (Clintonia borealis), Canada Mayflower (Maianthemum canadense), and Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis) at or near tree-line on high peaks. You may also see flowering Mountain Cranberry, Labrador Tea, Bog Bilberry, and Mountain Avens.

The other target species have moved on to fruiting, including Yellow Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum), Hobblebush (Viburnum lantanoides), and Red Trillium (Trillium erectum) pictured above. Bluebead Lily (Clintonia borealis), Canada Mayflower (Maianthemum canadense), and Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis) have started fruiting at low latitudes and elevations.

Thank you & don't forget to shoot the fruit!

Hi Folks,

May was marvelous. The project grew by 309 observations from 60 observers. Thank you for getting out and taking photos of the White Mountains! You can view May's observations and "fave" your top picks HERE.

June is our official Flower Watch Month. Please keep snapping photos along the trails. If you end up above treeline, please keep a look out for alpine flowers for our Northeast Alpine Flower Watch project. Diapensia has been observed blooming in small patches on Mount Washington.

Happy Trails!

Greetings!

If you are out and about in the White Mountains this week, you will likely see hobblebush blooming, pictured below. Depending on the elevation, you may also see the leaf buds, breaking leaf buds, and flower buds, displayed above the flowering image. Hobblebush is officially in bloom when the smaller white flowers in the center of the clusters begin to open and expose their stamens and pistils. The showy white larger flowers that surround the middle are sterile and only for decoration.

You may also encounter branches that have been broken off. In one of our study plots in Crawford Notch, we had several hobblebush starting to blossom that mysteriously disappeared a week later. Earlier in the same area, I saw a moose walking along the trail, browsing on beech leaves. Although we do not know for sure that this moose ate our study plot hobblebush, in the Algonquin language the word "moose" means "eater of twigs". Another common name for hobblebush is moose bush.

Hobblebush (Viburnum lantanoides)


Hobblebush phenology sequence (Top right: leaf buds; Top middle: flower buds and breaking leaf buds; Top right: Sterile flowers and flower buds; Bottom: Open flowers and flower buds)

More info about Moose:
https://vtfishandwildlife.com/learn-more/vermont-critters/mammals/moose

Hi White Mountain National Forest folks,

I hope your hiking legs and cameras are ready because the flowers of New Hampshire are waking up after their winter slumber. In the past few days I've seen the leaves of Yellow Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum) and Red Trillium (Trillium erectum) popping out of the topsoil. No flowers yet, but these two species started flowering in the southern Appalachians in March! It won't be long now.

Yellow Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum)

Yellow Trout Lily is also known as the Dogtooth violet. The flowers open in the morning and close before night according to the National Phenology Network .

Red Trillium (Trillium erectum)

According to the National Phenology Network, Red Trillium plants begin to flower after maturing for roughly 7 years. They are insect pollinated and have a strong odor.

We look forward to seeing your WMNF observations this Spring and Summer!

Why not view our recorded webinar? If you missed our early spring webinar training on the Northeast Alpine Flower Watch project you can view it at the link below. Similar to this project in the White Mountain National Forest the alpine project asks hikers to focus their iNaturalist lens on plants so researchers can look at how weather and climate affect the timing of peak flowering. We walk through a brief background on phenology and climate change in mountains as well as cover registering for iNaturalist, navigating the online interface, and using the app on your mobile device. Get tips on taking quality photos and learn about our target alpine species.

https://register.gotowebinar.com/recording/6641625674297204994

Hello White Mountain project members!

This year, in addition to monitoring the White Mountain National Forest, we are extending the project to all Northeast Alpine areas. Join our webinar training to learn about our new project Northeast Alpine Flower Watch. We will cover registering for iNaturalist, navigating the online interface, as well as using the app on your mobile device. Get tips on taking quality photos, learn about our target species, ask questions about the project, and more. This webinar will focus on the newer alpine focused project. However, all users are welcome to ask questions about our existing projects.

There are two webinar dates:
*Tuesday, April 2 at 7:00 pm
*Friday, April 5 at 12:00 pm

Advanced registration is required. Register for the webinar at the link below:
https://register.gotowebinar.com/rt/5669602419228400140

Thank you for joining! Please share!

Thank you to all of our project contributors! We had a great first year with over 1300 observations from across the White Mountain National Forest submitted to our project. 70% of those were of our target plant species most of which were also coded with their flowering phenology status. So, with the cooler temperatures, the dropping of fruit, and the browning of leaves its time to sit by the fire and crunch some data! We are planning to compare the peak flowering times identified by iNaturalists to those we track at our long-term National Phenology Network plots. We expect good agreement but will iNaturalist observations have longer flowering times? Will they fill in gaps by covering a larger elevation range? We will share our results once we are done so stay tuned.

And remember our project is perennial so keep the observations coming next year. Same plants, same mountain ranges, but a new spring and summer!

Hello!

As the summer begins to come to an end the late blooming species are blooming. If you have your summer vacation planned for the end of August you will still be able to see species in bloom like Mountain Sandwort (white flowers), Greenland Stitchwort (white flowers), Cutler's Goldenrod (yellow flowers), and Three-leaved rattlesnake-root (white flowers). You will also be able to see the big bright red berries of Mountain cranberry and the blue ones of bog bilberry, and.....maybe some blueberries closer to treeline. Finally, as you look at the plants keep an eye out for the White Mountain Fritillary, a small, orange butterfly that only lives in the alpine zone and is another species of research up here.

Hope to see you up here, Lauren

Hello everyone!

This is Lauren the researcher at Lakes of the Clouds Hut with an update on blooming up here. If you are hoping to see the mountain avens or bunchberry its better to get out here sooner rather than later as many are starting to lose their petals, but you can still catch a few. Mountain sandwort is blooming generously along the trails. If you are near a marshy area keep an eye out for the fluffy cotton sedge. If you are looking for more hands and knees flower viewing, the mountain cranberry is in bloom and the bog bilberry is starting to fruit. You can also view the last few flowers of Labrador tea.

Best, Lauren