Phenominal phenology

Phenology is derived from the Greek word phaino, meaning to show or appear. It is the study of recurring plant and animal life cycle events, or phenophases, such as leafing and flowering, maturation of agricultural plants, emergence of insects, and migration of birds.

I've always been into this particular branch of science.  It's old school.  It's low tech.  It's outside.  It's time tested and mother(earth) approved.  From an educator's perspective, it has to be one of the simplest  and most effective "lesson plans" to implement while still meeting a whole slew of state mandated learning standards.  From a gardener's perspective, it's what keeps us on our toes and ensures the demise of dull moments.

Phenology's been on my mind a lot lately, and I attribute its mesmerizing power to two things going on right now:  A) an unseasonably warm and record-breaking "winter" in Seattle contrasted with an atypical and record-breaking amount of snowfall back home in VA; and B) a really cool new project that the UWBG is taking part in called the Floral Report Card.  Its a rare and pleasant case of work and life meeting face to face.       

In light of these record-breaking phenomena taking place on both coasts, phenology takes on new meaning and importance in predicting what "normal" will mean as rapidly rising CO2 levels play out on the global climate stage and wreak havoc on all the computer models.  Life, as has been proven over the last 2 billion+ years, is remarkably adaptable.  Humans may very well be moving into uncharted territory, but we're still infants in the grand scheme of things.  For the plants and the insects and the birds that we share the biosphere with, climate change is nothing new.  So in seeking answers to the unexplainable, we need only look to where our species has always looked, to nature, to tap the Earth's pulse.

Hardiness zones are like national boundaries in Central Asia, or voting districts in Texas - ever shifting and never lasting.  The Floral Report Card project is attempting to harness the power of citizen-science and the interweb to create a national database that will help to redefine those hardiness zones as they fluctuate.  The gardening community will find this information helpful in determining the plants they can and cannot include in their landscape plans, and the scientific community will find it helpful in developing more accurate models of climate patterns.  Perhaps most important though is the bond between the natural world and the human species that is strengthened when collectively we stop to smell the roses (and make note of the first daffodil to pop up, cherry blossom to bloom, butterfly to flutter by, etc.). 

Before science became confined to sterilized laboratories, petri dishes and underground particle accelerators, it was free to occupy the open fields, woodlands, bogs and beaches. And all that one had to do to participate in the act of scientific discovery was open ones eyes and really look at the world.  Fortunately, this concept hasn't completely fallen by the wayside, and phenology offers the perfect vehicle to see that it never does.  Einstein put it best when he told us to "look deep, deep into nature and you will understand everything".  Take part in this effort to 'understand everything' by becoming a citizen scientist and sharing your observations on the USA National Phenology Network, and happy hunting.