February 6 Birch Catkins

It is common for White Birches (Betula papyrifera) to drop their mature flowers over the course of the winter, as opposed to all at once in the fall. They have adapted to drop these catkins onto the deeper snows of the northwoods, which gives them a chance of being windswept to more open areas where they can get the sunlight they need. If you hike through a forest in the next few weeks, look for little piles of these underneath the white trees with the peeling bark.