I recently had the opportunity to drive 1500 miles from south-to-north. This is a verbal description of what I noticed.
West of Miami: Bald Cypress and Long Leaf Pine.
Tampa: Elderberry (blooming), Sweet Gum showed up
Dade City: Sycamore?
Rolled down the window, honked the horn and hollared "Hello Annie!" |
Ocala: Magnolia blooming, Mimosa (Albezia, not the drink), Mulberry trees
Gainesville: Red Cedar
Georgia: Long Leaf Pine gave way to Loblolly Pine.
Chattanooga: Blackberries and Multiflora Rose blooming, Black Locust blossoms just starting to open. Shortleaf Pine dominant.
Knoxville: Honeysuckle blooming. Black Locust in full bloom. Shortleaf Pine very healthy looking. (Shortleaf Pine is native into southern Indiana but it looks scruffy and unhappy.)
Rockcastle, Ky: First White Pine sighted.
Corinth Ky: First Redbud blooming. American Plums ending bloom.
Dayton Oh: Redbuds in full bloom.
Toledo, Oh: American Plums in full bloom.
I know there are some big gaps in the story but I was driving for 1/2 the time and was looking at the road and not the scenery.
Springtime from a different perspective
The chart shown above suggests that plants in Charlotte, Michigan would have had a similar degree of development on April 5, 2021 as on May 1, 2018 and May 1, 2021. All three dates had about 85 GDD b50. That is a huge range of 3.7 weeks.
Even if you said "2021 is an outlier. Let's ignore it" then you still have an April 12-to-May 1 range or about 2.3 weeks.
One rule-of-thumb is that springtime proceeds north at a rate of about 200 miles per week. 2.3 weeks is the equivalent of 460 miles or the N/S distance between Eaton Rapids, Michigan and Knoxville, Tennessee.
It will be interesting to see if we have Black Locust in full bloom on May 18 since that is where Knoxville is right now and they should be that far ahead of us if the 200 miles a week is true.
Just rolled into Midland 4 hours ago, took us 3 days from Okeechobee. As I unloaded the vehicle in the slushy rain, I was ready to gas up and head back south.
ReplyDeleteBrutal weather right now. Handsome Hombre is probably regretting the move. The next four days should be better.
DeleteI have strawberry plants showing up tomorrow!
Multiflora rose is the devil.
ReplyDeleteI agree.
DeleteThe good news is that it is vulnerable to Rose Rosette Virus and native species are less vulnerable. Maybe that will knock it back, some.
Glad you made it safe! Prolly passed you on the highway around knoxvegas!
ReplyDeleteNagging Nellie, Handsome Hombre's mapping app, took us off 75 due to traffic and send us up cross-country. Maybe TN 162 north to TN 170 east.
DeletePretty country. No shoulders on the roads.
So maybe we passed. Maybe we didn't.
Lol@ no shoulders. Yeah, that took some getting used to when I first moved here. On the backroads, the yellow line doesn't mean anything either. THAT takes some getting used to. They do get back over onto their side eventually.
DeleteWay I was told by a local is they hooked the paver up to Bessie and let her loose in the pasture, and thats where the road went. I believe that.
I75 is a bear, lots of accidents, getting off it was prolly not a bad move.
Can you cuss in Spanish now?
ReplyDeleteERJ, when I have driven from Old Home to New Home (or vice versa), the change in flora and geography always fascinates me. Sometimes it is very distinct and abrupt, sometimes it is so gentle that one scarcely realizes that it is different until it is.
ReplyDeleteIn my mountainous province of BC, local spring timing is all in the elevation. Drive three minutes up a hill, about 600 feet, and you can see the leaves are smaller. Same with looking up a mountain side—almost no leaves 2000 feet up.
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ReplyDeleteCheck it out what i do.. office job
Yep! I was within 25 miles!
ReplyDelete