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.

This week I finally noticed that the flowers on henbit (Lamium amplexicaule) and purple dead-nettle (Lamium purpureum) are nearly the same unusual shape — like the mouth of a tiny cave with a double landing pad at the opening. Duh! Of course they are similar. Both are in the Lamium genus, native to Eurasia.

In a patch of flowers along the Nine Mile Run Trail I found both plants in close proximity. The first photo has henbit in focus, the second focuses on purple dead-nettle so you can compare them.

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.

4 April 2026

Woodlots in the City are greening up with the first tentative leaves …

… and full leaf on the Ohio buckeyes in Schenley Park.

New flowers bloomed in the summer-like heat: Virginia bluebells near the Visitors Center and a star magnolia near the Westinghouse memorial.

The star magnolia’s flowers were in bud during the mid March freeze so it recovered well. Unfortunately, the forecast for Tuesday night, 7 April, calls for a low of 27°F. 🙁

Invasive garlic mustard leafed out on 15 March and was blooming this Friday.

Coltsfoot went from flowers in snow on 19 March to full bloom on 3 April.

The photo below shows how many trees are greening up near the Panther Hollow Bridge which is covered in tarps for the current rehab.

What you can’t see is the female American robin carrying mud and grasses in her beak. She’s building a nest that she believes will be very safe, inside the tarp in the construction zone. The gap lets her in. Maybe the nest will be very safe. Maybe it’s a bad idea. She’ll find out.

And finally, more evidence of a bird that’s not in the photo. These track lines are small holes drilled by yellow-bellied sapsuckers. The tree heals the holes by growing more bark. Sapsuckers only visit Schenley Park on migration. I saw two yesterday.