Budburst

1. Budburst A Citizen Science Project

2. What is Citizen Science? • Public participation in science • Brings scientists and non-scientists together • Educates the public about scientific practices • Examples include the Lost Ladybug Project, FeederWatch, Caterpillars Count!, Journey North, Budburst

3. What is Budburst? “Budburst brings together researchers, educators, gardeners, and citizen scientists on a shared journey to uncover the stories of plants and animals affected by human impacts on the environment. We hope that sharing these stories will increase appreciation of plants and the natural world and inspire conservation action.” - https://budburst.org/

4. What is phenology? • Phenology is the study of when the changes in plants and animals happen. • Phenology study such phases in plants as when plants flower, leaves open, fruit is ripe, and leaves fall. • Phenology studies events like migration, hibernation, and reproduction in animals.

5. Phenology and Climate • The timing of these phases are affected by the seasons and climate change. • Phenologists want to know more about how plants and animals react to changes in the seasons and climate. • As the climate is different in different parts of the world, the same plant may flower at the beginning of March in one part of the world and not until the middle of April in another part.

6. How do they know?

7. Why is phenology important? • Our global climate is changing, and with these changes phenologists are studying how the phenology of plants and animals is also shifting. • The timing of when phases happen in the lives of plants and animals are connected. • For instance, bees need flowers for food and plants need bees to pollinate them.

8. Budburst • Budburst focuses on the phenology of plants. • We can help scientists learn more about the plants in our area by collecting and sending them data. • Data can be collected just once for a plant or multiple collections throughout a plant’s life cycle. • We can look at data for plants that others have collected in a table and in charts.

9. Budburst • Budburst groups plants into categories: • Wildflowers and Herbs • Deciduous Trees and Shrubs • Evergreen Trees and Shrubs • Conifers • Grasses

10. Nature Journaling • Sketch and describe your plant. Include information about the plant’s habitat and the current weather as well as any plant life cycle observations.

11. Nature Journaling • Sketch and describe your plant. Include information about the plant’s life cycle and label the parts.

12. Wildflowers and Herbs Flowers: White with 8-10 petals with bright yellow stamen. 1 ½ inches wide. Leaves: Green, horseshoe-shaped with several lobes (curved projections and indentations like a puzzle piece). Flowers: Five pale pink or white petals. Usually have pink lines on the petals. ½ - ¾ inches wide. Leaves: Slender, grass-like leaves grow in a pair about halfway up the stem. 2-4 inches long. Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) Virginia spring beauty (Claytonia virginica)

13. Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) Wildflowers and Herbs Leaves: The long stem is attached in the center of the leaf, giving it an ‘umbrella’ appearance. Plants have just one leaf if they are not in the flowering stage; reproductive plants have two leaves. Leaves themselves have 5 to 9 deeply divided lobes and appear rubbery. Each leaf can be up to 15 inches long. Flowers: Single yellow flower facing downward. Six petal-like parts curve backward and are often purple or brown on the back. 1 to 1 ½ inches wide. Leaves: One to two elliptic leaves 4 to 6 inches long; about 2 inches wide. Leaves can be solid green, or a mottled combination of pale green or brown. The speckled leaves are a key identification feature. Yellow trout lily (Erythronium americanum) Common dandelion (Taraxacumofficinale) Flowers: The bright yellow flowers grow individually on stems but a plant can have many flowers. 1 to 2 inches wide. Made up of hundreds of tiny ray flowers. When broken, the hollow, leafless stems exude a white, milky juice. Leaves: The leaves grow in a rosette shape from the base of the plant. They are long, lance-shaped to spoon-shaped, with a large round lobe at the tip and typically with triangular backwards pointing lobes or teeth on the sides. 2 to 12 inches long.

14. Deciduous Trees and Shrubs • Red maple (Acer rubrum) • American beech (Fagus grandifolia) • Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) • White oak (Quercus alba) • Black oak (Quercus velutina) • Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) • Tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) • Boxelder (Acer negundo) • Flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) Eastern redbud American beech

15. Evergreen Trees and Shrubs • American holly (Ilex opaca)

16. Conifers • Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) • Loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) • Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) • Northern white cedar (Thujaoccidentalis)

17. Grasses