Looking for Spring

 

If you are despairing of spring ever truly arriving, then it's time to get outside and look for terminal buds. Terminal buds are the buds on the tips of twigs that are the promise of new growth once a tree comes out of dormancy. Every autumn before going dormant, a tree produces a terminal bud so that once the days are long enough and the temperatures high enough the tree wakens and begins growing. It is akin to going to bed already dressed for the next day, something which might not be so good for people, but is good for trees who shouldn't waste a moment of growing opportunity.

The twig will grow all spring and summer until the autumn when the leaves drop and a new terminal bud is formed. By then, what was a terminal bud at the beginning of the summer will just be a couple of rings at the base of the new growth. By measuring the distance between the old terminal bud (the bud scale scar) and the new terminal bud, you can tell how much the twig grew last year. A word of advice, you have to look carefully on the twig to make sure the scar goes all the way around the twig. Any buds the the twig puts out during the spring and summer will leave a little mark as well, but that mark won't circle the twig.

Often times, as in the cottonwood twig above, the new growth will have a slightly different color than the old growth. This makes it easy to make the first time identification of the bud scale scar so you can work your way backward, finding where the terminal buds were in previous years. If you are feeling scientifically inclinded, always a good thing to be, you can bring a ruler to find out how much the twig grew every season.