Greetings!

As the year comes to a close, we will take one more look at your eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) and western redbud (Cercis occidentalis) data! Your data submitted as part of The Redbud Phenology Project will help researchers like Dr. Jorge Santiago-Blay of Penn State York and the National Museum of Natural History better understand the flowering and fruiting timing of these iconic spring trees.

In our last message, we looked at ripe fruits for redbuds. This week we will continue to look at your ripe fruit observations. We will also look at your reports of colored leaves and falling leaves - phenophases that characterize the autumn season.

In eastern redbuds, you may continue to see fruits on your tree throughout the winter. You may continue to mark "yes" for these persistent fruits if they have seeds in them. As you observe your redbuds through the winter, keep an eye out for the first flower buds next year as it begins to warm again. That way, when the spring phenophases do appear, you can accurately capture those first "yes" observations.

Some of your redbuds may also show some winter buds!  keep an eye out for buds and when buds begin to swell, report "yes" for flowers/flower buds.

Image credit: eastern redbud colored leaves and ripe fruits by Werner Tueckmantel via iNaturalist (CC-BY-NC)

If this email was forwarded to you, you can sign up to receive Redbud Phenology Project messages here.

Join us for a redbud training webinar!

If you would like to learn more about the Redbud Phenology Project, get observation tips, and chat with phenology leaders and professionals, you can sign up for our Redbud Webinar Training on December 2. We hope to see you there!

This year you tracked eastern redbuds at 253 sites and western redbuds at 11 sites. The map below shows the sites that have reported "yes" for ripe fruits (triangles), colored leaves (squares), and falling leaves (hexagons) for Eastern Redbuds. The color of the icons indicates the date of first "yes" that followed a "no". You can explore this visualization here.

This activity curve shows the proportion of "yes" observations for ripe fruits, colored leaves, and falling leaves. From September to mid-October, over half of your eastern redbud observations were "yes" for these phenophases! You can explore this visualization here.

Four Years of Redbud Observations

Your observations help researchers understand patterns in the flowering and fruiting of eastern redbuds, and if they have shifted in recent years. We invite you to continue observing your redbuds in 2026 so that researchers can examine what these larger patterns are! You can explore this visualization here.

Did you earn your redbud badge this year? You can earn this badge by submitting observations of eastern redbud in six different weeks within the year.

The badge will appear on your Observation Deck.

Thank you for your contributions to this important project!

McKinsey Tighe

Student Outreach Assistant

mckinsey@usanpn.org

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