Stone Mountain, early February

 A year ago, I was baffled. Now, I’m just curious.

I know now what I didn’t know then: that the bare trees pushing out that those soft, fuzzy burrs that look like rabbit paws are magnolias — Magnolia liliiflora, instead of the evergreen M. grandiflora I was used to. M. liliiflora comes from Asia, but you see it everywhere around Atlanta. Gardeners love it.

The authorities say I should be seeing the burrs later in spring, but I saw them in early February last year.

I’m also seeing red maples in flower. Acer rubrum flowers before it puts on leaves, and you see whisps of red in the forest now. Again, the authorities say that I should see the flowers in March and April, not February, but I saw them at the same time last year.

That report comes with foreboding. Last year, many farmers in Georgia reported losses of up to 90 percent of their peach crops. Warm weather encouraged blooms. Then we had hard frosts.

Among the other signs of spring: Leatherleaf mahonia, Berberis bealei, is blooming. It’s a big evergreen shrub that can become a small tree. It’s from China, but suggestions that it has “reportedly” escaped into the wild are a bit late. The yellow flowers on a long raceme are lovely.

We’ve also seen some net-winged beetles flying. The ones I’m seeing are fire-engine red. They are in family Lycidae, but I cannot distinguish among the many species. Some feed on nectar, so I’m looking for flowers. Most of the blooms are violets and dandelions. 

While I’m looking for signs of spring, the American beech tree, Fagus grandifolia, is the grand contrarian. The beeches are still holding on to last year’s leaves. With all the weathering, some of the leaves are still copper colored, but most are drained of color and look like worn khakis. Some are almost white.a