Today was a beautiful overcast spring day with a temperature of 68 degrees, We had a mixture of weather this past week between thunderstorms and snow flurries then respectively warm and cold temperatures. The amur honeysukle (Lonicera maackii) does not seem to be affected by the weather because I did not see any evidence of wilting. I noticed that all the plants have finally stopped in increasing their leaf size and the energy is now being used for the flower buds. There were more than 10,000 flower buds on each plant that I think will be ready to burst soon. In the photos below show the plant is very green and the flower buds are still growing before they burst open. All photos by: Karissa Aly
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Today at 12:40pm, the temperature was 68°F and there was a dark overcast sky. There were very light, intermittent sprinkles of rain along with wind blowing at 5mph. Each of the 4 amur honeysuckles (Lonicera maackii ) that were observed displayed very similar phenophase signs. They are each showing <25% increasing leave size, which is less than previous observations. The snow damaged leaves seem to be surviving with brown tips. Canopy coverage has reached the higher side of the 50-74% range. This isn’t a surprise, especially since we have recently experienced multiple days of sunshine and temperatures reaching almost 80°F. The major phenophase observed today is an emergence of about 101-1,000 flower buds.
(Each photo was taken by observer Travis Mitchell) On Wednesday, April 4, 2018 the weather was sunny and around 40° F with extreme wind of up to 23 mph. The Amur honeysuckles still had some breaking buds on their branches. Because the shrubs still have some breaking buds, there is also still around 25-49% increasing leaf size present. However, they all had a 50-74% full canopy of leaves. Many of the leaves were still slightly damaged from last week heavy snow. On 3/29/18 at around 9:30am, an observation on the Amur honeysuckle was done by Jared Crotts. After a previous few weeks of snow and cold variations in temperature, The plants have began to flourish in full force. The plants are beginning to change from breaking bud and becoming leaves entirely. There we notes of dead leaves and and the weather was in the forties majority of the week. Weather was partly cloudy and temperature was 64 degrees and maxed at 78 degrees. The plants are beginning to gain canopy coverage in the range of 50- 74 percent. Increasing leaf size of transition from increasing to leaves. Around 4pm, the weather was 47°F with mostly sunny skies. Winds were up to 8 mph, and it had just snowed about 6 inches the night before. Today's sun had melted all the snow off of the amur honeysuckles, and they all survived (unlike many other plants nearby). Each of the 4 plants seem to be showing equal phenophases. The only difference from last week's observations is the lack of breaking leaf buds. It seems they have all broke into full leaves. Honeysuckle #3 may have endured some minor leaf loss from the snow, but the canopy coverage is still about 50-75% and the increasing leaf size also remained at about 50-75%. There are still no flower buds/flowers in sight. (Each of these pictures were taken by observer Travis Mitchell) Amur honeysuckle #1 (Lonicera maackii) Amur honeysuckle #2 (Lonicera maackii) showing showing some increasing leaf size. about 50-75% canopy coverage Amur honeysuckle #3 (Lonicera maackii) seems Amur honeysuckle #4 (Lonicera maackii) Showing to have lost some leaves during the snow storm it's increasing leaf size.
the previous night. The Amur honeysuckles still had about 10-100 breaking buds on each plant. They had a canopy of around 50-75% increasing leaf size, and filled the canopy around 5-25% with leaves. However, there were no flowers or flower buds on any of the Amur honeysuckles. The weather was very sunny with winds up to 15 mph and a temperature of 44° F. Snow was covering the ground for 4 days prior to the observation The amur honeysuckle is showing a lot of activity compared to that of the surrounding vegetation. The growing leaves seem to be weathering the cold temperatures well because I did not spot any that were damaged. There are still large areas of the plants that are showing slower growth compared to other areas, like development is done in groupings as opposed to development as a whole. Amur honeysuckle-1-3 still had breaking leaf buds while the other areas showed full leaf out. The smallest of the observed amur honeysuckle-4 showed the least in development diversity stages. The entire plant of 4 develops as a whole. The most interesting observation I made was on plant 3. The right side of the plant shares space with another unobserved amur honeysuckle and it is the right side that shows the slowest development in growth. Weather: 49 degrees Fahrenheit, generally overcast. The average weather for the week has been mostly cooler in the mid 30’s. On the 7th there was a 0.2 inches of perception. Amur Honeysuckle-3 (Lonicera maackii) whole plant to show the left side developing at a faster rate than that on the right side on 3/10/18. See the bright greens of full leaf out and increasing leaf size on the leaf that is lacking on the right which still has bursting buds. (photo taken by Karissa Aly).
On March 4, 2018 at 11:16 am observer Jared Crotts went and estimate the phenological phase development of the four Amur Honeysuckles. The weather was partial cloudy skies with a temperature of 46°F at 43% humidity, and 0% precipitation. One plant was noted to have dead new growth leaves present (fig. 2). Appearance in the switch between breaking bud and increasing leaf size. Most of the plants were experiencing primarily increasing leaf size from 50-74%. There was a partial breaking bud as well at around 25%. No flowers were present.
On February 22, 2018 the weather was an average of 58 degrees for the week with very minimum precipitation. On observation day the temperature was 70 degrees with a clear blue sky. Today the amur honeysuckle was showing full leaf out on some limbs of the plant while on others there was still bursting buds. All of the amur honeysuckles being observed are all relatively expressing the same phenophases with bursting buds about 1,001 to 10,000; young leaves about 101 to 1,000; less than 5% canopy growth; and less than 25% of increasing leaf size. Amur Honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) with full leaf out on 2/22/18 (photo taken by Karissa Aly).
At 2:45pm on February 18th, 2018, observer Travis Mitchell went out to the Radford University Bike Path to analyze the phenophase progression of the 4 amur honeysuckle (Lonicera mackii) plants that our group tagged last week. The weather at the time was 58°F, accompanied by 0% precipitation and clear, blue skies. The major phenophase changes observed were with honeysuckle #2 & #3. These two plants had breaking leaf buds, compared to the dormant buds observed the prior week. For honeysuckles #1 & #4, they had dormant buds which were the same as last week. |
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