📜 EwA Week Highlights: Flowers, Flowers, Flowers

[Mike McGlathery]

EwA Highlights May 3, 2025 Hello everyone,  Thanks for reading the May 3rd EwA highlights, and thank you to all of our naturalists that participated in the observation phase of the City Nature Challenge! If you want to join in, there’s still time to help with the identifying phase this weekend. 📸 It's truly a great time of year to be outside observing plants—there are lots of new things to see every week. With the surge in observations that came from the City Nature Challenge, our naturalists observed 390 different plant species this week! One of those was the yellow trout lily (Erythronium americanum), with this one being observed by Joe.  EwA iNaturalist Record (© Joe MacIndewar · Medford, MA · Apr. 28, 2025)  One of the more unique-looking flowers you’ll see in our forests is the jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum). As the inflorescence of this plant grows, it gradually transitions from having male flowers to having female flowers, with some overlap in between. This condition is called dichogamy, and allows inflorescences to house both male and female flowers while minimizing self-fertilization and inbreeding.  EwA iNaturalist Record (© margles411 · Stoneham, MA · Apr. 26, 2025)  EwA’s most observed species this week was the common blue violet (Viola sororia). This plant employs a remarkable (but not unique) strategy for distributing its seeds: it uses ants. The seeds have an edible coating that entices ants to bring them back to their nests. Once the coating has been eaten, the seed can start to grow, with the ants having done the work of distributing it to another location. The common blue violet isn't the only plant to do this, but it's probably the one you'll encounter most often around here. EwA iNaturalist Record (© joanneteresa · Cambridge, MA · Apr. 29, 2025)  📊 Thanks to everyone for your great biodiversity records this week, totaling 2,059 observations of 774 distinct species. If you’re curious about the records from this week that have been validated by the iNat community so far, you can find them » here. 🏆 Running tally: To date, we have recorded 232,554 observations of 12,472 distinct species! Check out our EwA umbrella project, see the details per site/observer, and more » here. 📅 EwA Upcoming Public Events Ewa Field Events » Check the EwA Spring [ Event details and registration » ] Don’t miss some great opportunities to follow the rhythm of the season in our local habitats and in the local wildlife! Space is limited for all our field events. Wildlife ethics is important to us and we seek to avoid putting the pressure on natural habitats which large gatherings unavoidably do. We are asking our audience to register-and-commit (or cancel when you know you can’t come) to avoid no-shows. EwA Fieldwork (and Resources) It’s a great time to join our monitoring programs. Check EwA’s Volunteer Program Calendar 📅  to know when things happen. And if a session is of interest to you, don’t hesitate to reach out to get the rendezvous location. 📅 EwA Sites Map | 🌱 Site Protocols and Guides · Field Rosters · Field Notes » All here! | ℹ️ More about EwA’s Citizen Science Program » Here ❓ Do you have any questions? Don’t be shy. Just email me or reply to this thread.  That’s all for this week—hope you have a good one! -Mike