This sagebrush buttercup on Knox Mountain, photographed on March 3, is a sure sign that spring is coming.
Image Credit: Submitted/Ian Walker
March 05, 2022 - 8:00 AM
While the war rages in Ukraine, snow continues to fall in mountain passes and temperatures drop below freezing at night, there are signs that spring has sprung in the Okanagan.
UBC Okanagan professor Ian Walker snapped a photo of the first sagebrush buttercup he’s seen blooming this year, March 3, and posted it on the Okanagan Natural History News Facebook page.
“I don’t know if I’ve got absolutely the first day that they bloom, but I’m usually there not too long afterwards,” Walker, a professor in the biology, earth, environmental and geographic department, told iNFOnews.ca.
Each year he captures a photo the buttercups on the south slope of Knox Mountain Park, just down the Paul’s Tomb trail from the first viewpoint.
In 2017, he captured his first buttercup on the mountain on Feb. 25.
One of the earliest seasons was 2017 when this bloomed on Feb. 25.
Image Credit: Submitted/Ian Walker
READ MORE: Okanagan Okie predicts an early spring
Last year, they didn’t come out until March 24.
2021 was a late spring with this bloom arriving March 24.
Image Credit: Submitted/Ian Walker
Over the next few weeks many more will come into bloom and a coworker shot pictures of sagebrush buttercups near the UBCO campus Thursday as well.
They’re very hardy, native flowers that have been recorded by others in bloom every month of the year in the region, including one Walker photographed on Nov. 25, 2018, in the Scenic Canyon area along Mission Creek.
The hardy sagebrush buttercup can bloom year round. This was photographed on Nov. 25, 2018.
Image Credit: Submitted/Ian Walker
They’re not actually the first flower to show the coming of spring, although they are the first with petals.
“There are a number of things one might pay attention to,” Walker said. “I think, it was mid-January when I heard redwing blackbirds calling down at Rotary Marsh but I was pretty skeptical at that point. There are some other things that come pretty early. I’ve been noticing catkins on the alders and hazelnuts, but they’re not very showy flowers so this is the first showy flower showing up each spring.”
The real early bloomers are these alder catkins that were out on Feb. 24, 2022.
Image Credit: Submitted/Ian Walker
Catkins are dense flowers that hang down from alder, birch and other trees.
“They are wind pollinated so they produce a lot of pollen but nothing showy in terms of petals so most people probably don’t pay too much attention to them,” Walker said.
The sagebrush buttercup is native to the Okanagan and prefers dry areas. In the hot Okanagan summers it’s more likely to be seen at higher elevations.
There are other buttercup species, like tall buttercups, creeping buttercups and some that grow in water or around margins of lakes. Walker is not sure if any of those are native or invasive.
But the blooming of the sagebrush buttercup is a sure sign that spring is coming.
“It tends to be around this time of year the clouds start lifting out of the valley for a bit and we get the longer days and so spring usually comes on pretty quickly now,” Walker said. “Some of the things we’ll see is these little lakes and ponds around the Okanagan start thawing. I noticed there’s a little bit of a moat starting to form at Munson’s Pond and also at Robert Lake (both in Kelowna), so that starts attracting some waterfowl in.”
As for Wiarton Willie, on Groundhog Day on Feb. 2 he called for an early spring this year.
READ MORE: Groundhog Day: Shubenacadie Sam, Wiarton Willie disagree on weather forecast
But his Canadian peers, Shubenacadie Sam and Fred la Marmotte, both called for more winter.
Based on Walker's admittedly unscientific research, spring in the Okanagan this year is coming in at about the average time.
Environment Canada is forecasting some sunshine this weekend with daytime hight of 5 to 6 Celsius and overnight lows down as far as -5 C.
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