Flowering of red huckleberry: Galiano Island 2015

The flowering of red huckleberry (Vaccinium parvifolium) was my first—and perhaps my favourite— phenological series from 2015. I would have followed up on this individual into its fruiting cycle, but unfortunately a certain small animal plucked the branch off the plant!

The series elapses from February 20 to March 17—so as you can see the flowering cycle of this particular plant happened over the course of about a month, during which time its leafs opened up too. Enclosed in the urn-shaped flowers are ten stamens occurring in two whorls of five each.

When the flowers fall off, the central style remains. The fruit matured in June and was picked clean by birds by July.

Julkaistu tammikuu 29, 2016 08:16 IP. käyttäjältä chlorophilia chlorophilia

Havainnot

Kuvat / Äänet

Havainnoija

chlorophilia

Päivämäärä

Helmikuu 20, 2015

Kuvaus

This observation is part of a phenological series documented in a journal entry:

Flowering of red huckleberry: Galiano 2015

Other observations in this series include:

Feb. 24, 2015

Feb. 28, 2015

Mar. 1, 2015

Mar. 2, 2015

Mar. 7, 2015

Mar. 9, 2015

Mar. 12, 2015

Mar. 17, 2015

Kuvat / Äänet

Havainnoija

chlorophilia

Päivämäärä

Helmikuu 24, 2015

Kuvaus

This observation is part of a phenological series documented in a journal entry:

Flowering of red huckleberry: Galiano 2015

Other observations in this series include:

Feb. 20, 2015

Feb. 28, 2015

Mar. 1, 2015

Mar. 2, 2015

Mar. 7, 2015

Mar. 9, 2015

Mar. 12, 2015

Mar. 17, 2015

Kuvat / Äänet

Havainnoija

chlorophilia

Päivämäärä

Helmikuu 28, 2015

Kuvaus

This observation is part of a phenological series documented in a journal entry:

Flowering of red huckleberry: Galiano 2015

Other observations in this series include:

Feb. 20, 2015

Feb. 24, 2015

Mar. 1, 2015

Mar. 2, 2015

Mar. 7, 2015

Mar. 9, 2015

Mar. 12, 2015

Mar. 17, 2015

Kuvat / Äänet

Havainnoija

chlorophilia

Päivämäärä

Maaliskuu 1, 2015

Kuvaus

This observation is part of a phenological series documented in a journal entry:

Flowering of red huckleberry: Galiano 2015

Other observations in this series include:

Feb. 20, 2015

Feb. 24, 2015

Feb. 28, 2015

Mar. 2, 2015

Mar. 7, 2015

Mar. 9, 2015

Mar. 12, 2015

Mar. 17, 2015

Kuvat / Äänet

Havainnoija

chlorophilia

Päivämäärä

Maaliskuu 2, 2015

Kuvaus

This observation is part of a phenological series documented in a journal entry:

Flowering of red huckleberry: Galiano 2015

Other observations in this series include:

Feb. 20, 2015

Feb. 24, 2015

Feb. 28, 2015

Mar. 1, 2015

Mar. 7, 2015

Mar. 9, 2015

Mar. 12, 2015

Mar. 17, 2015

Kuvat / Äänet

Havainnoija

chlorophilia

Päivämäärä

Maaliskuu 7, 2015

Kuvaus

This observation is part of a phenological series documented in a journal entry:

Flowering of red huckleberry: Galiano 2015

Other observations in this series include:

Feb. 20, 2015

Feb. 24, 2015

Feb. 28, 2015

Mar. 1, 2015

Mar. 2, 2015

Mar. 9, 2015

Mar. 12, 2015

Mar. 17, 2015

Kuvat / Äänet

Havainnoija

chlorophilia

Päivämäärä

Maaliskuu 9, 2015

Kuvaus

This observation is part of a phenological series documented in a journal entry:

Flowering of red huckleberry: Galiano 2015

Other observations in this series include:

Feb. 20, 2015

Feb. 24, 2015

Feb. 28, 2015

Mar. 1, 2015

Mar. 2, 2015

Mar. 7, 2015

Mar. 12, 2015

Mar. 17, 2015

Kuvat / Äänet

Havainnoija

chlorophilia

Päivämäärä

Maaliskuu 12, 2015

Kuvaus

This observation is part of a phenological series documented in a journal entry:

Flowering of red huckleberry: Galiano 2015

Other observations in this series include:

Feb. 20, 2015

Feb. 24, 2015

Feb. 28, 2015

Mar. 1, 2015

Mar. 2, 2015

Mar. 7, 2015

Mar. 9, 2015

Mar. 17, 2015

Kuvat / Äänet

Havainnoija

chlorophilia

Päivämäärä

Maaliskuu 17, 2015

Kuvaus

This observation is part of a phenological series documented in a journal entry:

Flowering of red huckleberry: Galiano 2015

Other observations in this series include:

Feb. 20, 2015

Feb. 24, 2015

Feb. 28, 2015

Mar. 1, 2015

Mar. 2, 2015

Mar. 7, 2015

Mar. 9, 2015

Mar. 12, 2015

Kommentit

This is neat. I am going to have to do this.

Lähettänyt charlie noin 8 vuotta sitten

I would love to see more stuff like this on iNat! Glad I could help inspire you.

Lähettänyt chlorophilia noin 8 vuotta sitten

This is inspired! I want to do this too!

Lähettänyt gbentall noin 8 vuotta sitten

It is a meticulous but rewarding process.

If you undertake a phenological study like this, it is helpful to begin with a sense of the dimensions of an organism's unfolding, to properly frame your subject. I have a series of Bigleaf maple flowering, for example, in which I had to pan out as it unfolded, because its bloom is so great. While it still works out OK, it's not the best because the end result has no sense of proportion relative to the frame.

Also: choose a subject that is a little ways off the beaten trail. There are many sources of disturbance that are uncontrollable (like deer, birds, etc.) but in the case of this study, which was done near a school, I ended up losing my subject due to simple human curiosity...

Having a tripod set in a fixed location can be helpful but you don't need to fret too much about it necessarily, depending on your subject, and depending on how exact you want to be. This study was done without a tripod, and in fact, the tripod likely would have made things more difficult, without much improvement on the final result.

Photo editing software like Photoshop becomes an indispensable tool to help adjust the composition and redefine the frame afterward. You can use layers and change their transparency to adjust the dimensions of each frame so they come into alignment. Then redefine the frame.

Learning from trial and error, you may find it is best to leave some 'wiggle' room around your original shots, because when you have to readjust later you may lose peripheral areas of your composition (something that probably won't make much sense until you've had practice.)

Mind you, those who use tripods and who are more obsessed with keeping it exact in the field may have less difficulty than me in this respect.

Lähettänyt chlorophilia noin 8 vuotta sitten

Thanks for letting us benefit from your trial and error!

Lähettänyt gbentall noin 8 vuotta sitten

Happy to share. I'd love to see more phenological photography going on :)

Lähettänyt chlorophilia noin 8 vuotta sitten

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