From all appearances, the frigid weather of 2024/25’s winter is coming to a close. While folk wisdom forecasts the potential for frost as late as Easter, that holiday will not arrive until April 20, 2025.
The late date could be an indication that Punxsutawney Phil, the internationally known groundhog from Pennsylvania, was correct on Groundhog Day. The well-fed rat relative that works only one day a year did forecast six more weeks of winter on February 2, 2025.
Even if Phil’s prognostication was correct, that would put winter at an end on March 16, 2025, a few days before the official calendar end of winter. One way or another, most residents of the area will soon be packing up their winter gear.
Warm jackets and coats, especially the down-filled variety, will be of no use during the coming higher temperatures. There is, however, plenty of down being used by native plants.
Cattails, the endemic wetland weeds, are currently disbursing their seeds on late winter breezes. Most will not land on a suitable site for germination, but enough survive to easily continue the species.
Thistledown is the plant fiber used by annuals, biennials and perennials to disburse their seeds by air to new and potentially hospitable sites for the purpose of germination.
For thistle, it is a major advantage when colonizing new ground to have its seeds floating to earth at a distance from the parent plant. It stands a better chance of pushing out competing plants when the warmer season arrives.
Biennial plants are those growing from seed in the first year and which produce seeds the second year.
During the plant’s second year of growth, a stalk with a bloom bud will elongate above the plant, known as bolting. Bolting frequently begins in late January and may go through July, depending on the species and the environmental conditions.
Once the biennial plant blooms, it can produce up to 4,000 seeds per plant. The tiny seeds are dispersed under the soft feathery material as the biennial thistle plants are dying.
The flower spikes are densely packed with tiny flowers and resemble, at a distance, a cat’s furry tail. If a gentle breeze sways the cattails, it is easy to see why the common name has entered universal acceptance.
Cattails also use the breeze for spreading their seeds. After flowering in the spring and summer, a hotdog-like seed head forms. Initially green, it matures to a dark brown.
Each seed head contains approximately 220,000 seeds which are attached to a fine downy material. As the seed head breaks up during the autumn, winter and early spring, the seeds are carried on breezes to new locations.
Broomsedge produces large volumes of seeds small enough to disperse on the wind. The prolific seed producer has a high germination rate and excellent seedling survival frequency.
Its down-covered seeds are still floating in and around the region, carried by the breezes. Depending on several factors, the seeds can be deposited many miles from the parent plant.
Lastly, dandelions are also a cool season weed which casts its seed to the wind. After its flowering is finishing up, its flower head dries out for a few days. The bloom petals and stamen sluff off, and the downy ball opens into a full sphere.
In short order the breezes scatter the seeds.
As the down coats go to the back of the closet, thistledown seeds are arriving at new sites. Whether Punxsutawney Phil was right or wrong, at least some of the plants dependent upon thistle down will continue their age-old practice of appearing in new locations.
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