11 April 2026

Despite temperatures that dipped into the upper 20s on Wednesday, spring is still making progress in Pittsburgh. This week I found more flowers and leaves.

Though they don’t look like flowers these yellow-orange structures are the inflorescence of bear corn (Conopholis americana, formerly squaw root), a underground non-photosynthesizing plant that is parasitic on beech and oak roots. The literature officially says “oak roots” but I always find bear corn under beech trees.

The pawpaw trees (Asimina triloba) are blooming in Schenley Park. Their dark brown flowers have a faintly stinky smell to attract flies and beetles as pollinators. Pawpaw’s success is a good sign for zebra swallowtails (Eurytides marcellus). It is their only host plant.

Jetbead (Rhodotypos scandens) has both flowers and leaves this week. Native to China and Japan it was planted in Schenley Park as an ornamental. Unfortunately it is invasive.

Ohio buckeyes (Aesculus glabra) in Schenley Park have gone from merely leaves to blooming flowers in just one week. This tree had mild frost damage. If you look closely you’ll see a few dark green, shriveled leaves.

And yet, despite all the greenery the woods are still mostly bare. Sunlight reached the forest floor yesterday prompting woodland wildflowers to bloom.

By 5 May all the trees will be leafed out and the spring wildflowers will have gone to seed.