Early April Bloomers at Little Buffalo State Park

Spring has come to South-central PA at last. Flowers will be picking up speed in opening their blooms this week with the forecasted warm weather.

In early April the spicebush is one of our first native plants to bloom.

Spicebushes full of bright lemony-yellow blooms getting ready to burst open. The first few flowers had already blossomed in the sunshine.

Many Spicebush Blooms Ready to Open
Many Spicebush Blooms Ready to Open

Only a handful of different plants were seen to be blooming or nearly so at Little Buffalo State Park on April 5, 2017, including:

Low-growing chickweed and spring beauty both have white flowers with five petals, but they look quite different from one another.

Chickweed and Spring Beauty Bloom Side-by-Side
Chickweed (left) and Spring Beauty (right) Bloom Side-by-Side

Chickweed is smaller with its elongated and deeply cleft petals, which make it appear to have 10 petals.

Spring beauty flower petals are much larger and their pink anthers at the stamen tips really stick out.

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