Strange Days: Spring, Yokohama, 2022

 

Wild neighborhood flower in Yokohama 2022 …
 FYI, it’s Japanese bishop’s hat.

From last weekend to Monday, we had very cold days in our neighborhood. Peaks of Tanzawa 丹沢, Hakone 箱根, and inevitably Mt. Fuji 富士山 have been again snowcapped. Fully bloomed cherry blossoms started falling in cold windy rain. Sad. Then, the weather suddenly become early summer like. Homo sapience are confused. Winter coat, or just a shirt?... How about the other species? Are they coping with the strange weather?

I haven’t done any systematic research for the growth of vegetation here. But one thing for sure this year is, we have not had enough bracken shooting yet for harvesting. Until last year, I could find them by the middle of March in Yokohama. The young shoots were available until the end of April or so. It was fun to cook them as seasonal treat (; my post on April 2, 2021). Not this year. I asked my seniors of Forest Instructors who are active in the other forests of Kanagawa Prefecture. All said “Nope. We don’t have them yet either.” Hmmmmm … Plum blossoming was also very late. There is a plum tree that flowers always first in Niiharu 新治市民の森. In December 2020 it started to have flowers. We enjoyed them until March. Not this year. In 2022, it opened finally in the first week of February. We expected the flowering of spring forest would catch up from here as for the previous years. Nope. Cold weather returned and returned.

These are the earliest plum flowers in Niiharu.

By the way, don’t you think this tiny bird of pray,
 bull-headed shrike, cute?
 I found her when these plums flowered in February.

Spring ephemerals are, it seems to me, also puzzled. They are like “Hello, hello? Is it OK to start our spring now?” I hoped severe winter would bring bursting spring just like in northern places. Maybe, we could have crazy parties of lots of colors with many flowers at once! Nah. Hesitating flowers sporadically open within browned patches of winter. The scenery has continued for more than a month ... Then last week, cherry blossoms have come, rain or shine. They‘ve begun swirling soon after over the ground often in winter color. Is something happening?

It seems to me this is a bounty year for field horsetails
 (; my post on April 13, 2018).

And sasa bamboos are flowering.

But Corydalis decumbens (Thunb.) Pers.
have not flowered as of April 2nd ... where‘s bud!?

Still, in colder Yadoriki やどりき水源林 I‘ve found that frogspawns in March have turned into tadpoles last week. Well, seasons come whatever my anxiety is. It would be better to take it easy …

Frogspawns of Montane brown frog, early March

And they are now tadpoles.
 Could you figure out black dots in alga?

In any case, Viola betonicifolia have flower early April, as usual!

If you find environmental issues in Kanagawa Prefecture, please make a contact with Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター

657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121
〒243－0121　厚木市七沢657
Phone: 046-248-0323

You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/1644/