Despite the unexpected snow this last week, spring is still on its way! Many forest wildflowers in the Arb have adaptations to deal with these kinds of weather disruptions and are thus able to start blooming even when it’s more chilly, taking advantage of the available light before the trees…
Alec Leonetti
During the spring and summer months in the Arb, birds are building their nests and raising their young. After the chicks have fledged, many birds abandon their nests and build a new one the next year. For this reason, you can find empty nests throughout the Arb during the winter! …
During this very chilly week in February, it is hard to imagine staying outside in one spot the entire winter. Trees are unfortunately in this situation: if without the proper protections in place, their cells can freeze, and the tree will die. So how do they survive? There are many…
With winter weather finally on its way, many herbaceous invasive plant species in the Arboretum have died back, but the woody invaders remain. In the summertime, the Arb Crew works almost tirelessly to help eradicate invasive species in their prime to make the Arboretum ecosystem more diverse and safer for…
With the arrival of warmer weather in southern Minnesota also comes a strange and fascinating species of fungus to the Cowling Arboretum. This is the Cedar Apple Rust, a fungus from the family Pucciniaceae, most of which require two host species to survive. This fungus undergoes many life cycles, and…
Many bird species found in the arboretum during the early spring to late fall have flown South for the winter, though there are species who stay in Minnesota during the cold winters. One advantage to birding in the winter is that there is a much more manageable number of species…