As snow began to fall in Tower Grove Park on Friday, a row of shrubs was sporting something you might not expect in February — flowers.
This Ozark witch hazel is one of the earliest native plants to bloom in the St. Louis region, and its bursting petals are considered one of the first signs of the coming spring. Now, a local organization is launching a new effort to track the plant’s bloom, in the hope it could eventually shed light on how the local climate is changing and what that means for plants and animals.
When Ellen Sulser first saw common witch hazel starting to flower in her yard in December, it sparked her curiosity.
“Witch hazel did bloom a little earlier, at least in my yard, which is why I wanted to start this witch hazel hunt,” Sulser said. “To see whether or not this was a trend that just I was observing, or something that we were seeing statewide.”
Sulser is the volunteer coordinator at Forest ReLeaf of Missouri. The organization already has a citizen science initiative called Missouri Forestkeepers Network, which calls on volunteers to submit data to track the health of local forests, so it wasn’t a big stretch to launch the new initiative tracking this shrub.
Forest ReLeaf began asking citizen scientists to join the “Witch Hazel Hunt” at the end of January by finding the hyperlocal species, the vernal or Ozark witch hazel, and submitting data about its location and its flowers in an online form. In the first few weeks, the organization has collected more than 100 observations from 48 Missouri ZIP codes.
Sulser is hoping the data from the hunt will build understanding about how witch hazel might be used to track changes in the local climate and inversely how weather patterns affect witch hazel’s bloom.
“Getting to understand the timeline of this particular species is going to be a great benefit to us in understanding how the last couple of years have shaped our woodlands, have influenced pollinators and influenced our ability to experience the beauty of the species firsthand,” Sulser said.
The study of a plant or animal’s natural calendar is called phenology. Across the country, scientists and volunteers are keeping track of the timing of natural events like changing colors in leaves, hatching eggs and migration, said Theresa Crimmins, a professor at the University of Arizona and director of the USA National Phenology Network.
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“All those events are timed based on what local conditions are like,” Crimmins said. “And so if it's been extra warm, for example, oftentimes we see a lot of those springtime seasonal events occur earlier than in years when we're experiencing cooler springs.”
The USA National Phenology Network coordinates data collection initiatives across the country through a project called Nature’s Notebook. The Witch Hazel Hunt is not affiliated with the USA National Phenology Network, but Crimmins said projects like these are a way for anyone to get involved and contribute to our understanding of the ecosystems around us.
“Most of what we know about how phenology has changed in recent decades is because of observations that folks have made on a voluntary basis,” Crimmins said.
This data collection is especially important as the climate changes. When an abnormally warm winter throws off the timing for an organism like a plant, that can have a cascading effect, causing dependent animals like migrating birds or pollinators to miss out on a food source. Crimmins said more data can build our understanding of how plants and animals are being affected by the changing environment.
“While making observations on phenology is really beneficial for science and trying to adapt to rapidly changing climate conditions, it's actually a really fun and rewarding experience too,” Crimmins said. “Every time I go out there and look at my plants, I'm so glad that I did. It feeds my soul a little.”
Sulser also hopes the hunt will give people a unique opportunity to get out in nature in the coldest months and connect with their neighborhoods in a new way.
“Coming across a plant that's flowering in winter in the snow is such a rare and magical experience,” Sulser said.
