1. Date:
Breaking buds:
Unfolded leaves:
Full leaves:
Falling leaves:
Pollen:
Flower heads:
Full flowers:
Fruit:
Ripened fruit:
Fruit drop:

2. Recording Plant Observations
Training Materials
Recording Plant Observations
This mini-presentation will guide you through the steps of recording your observations of plants at your site.
This information is also available on USA-NPN website at

3. Phenophases to observe: Check plant profile page: http://www. usanpn
To determine which phenophases to look for on your plant and how to recognize them, you can check the plant species profile pages on the USA-NPN website. More information on selecting plant species can be found in the training movie, “Selecting plant or animal species”.
Here is a screen capture of the plant profile page for Red maple (Acer rubrum). If you choose to monitor Red maple, we are interested in knowing whether you see breaking leaf buds, and leaves each time you visit the plant, as well as some other leaf phenophases not shown in this screen capture.

4. Phenophases to observe:
We are also interested in knowing whether you observe flowers (which can be opened or unopened), open flowers….

5. Phenophases to observe:
…fruits (which can be ripe or unripe), and ripe fruits when you visit the plant. In some cases, fruits are not ripe for very long before they drop from the plant. If this is the case you can indicate that one or more fruits have dropped since the last time you visited your plant.
Several phenophases are listed for each plant species. You are not required to observe all of the suggested phenophases for a species. We welcome observations on as many or as few phenophases you feel comfortable with tracking.
You may wish to print out a copy of the phenophases from your species profile page to take with you to your monitoring site, because in many cases it provides some extra information not included on the datasheet.

6. Red maple
Red maple-1
My Back Yard
2011
USA-NPN fan
Here is a screen capture of what a plant datasheet looks like.

7. What to look for and record
Yes (Y) – if the phenophase is occurring
No (N) – if the phenophase is not occurring
Uncertain (?) – if you are not certain whether the phenophase is occurring
Do not record anything if you did not check for this phenophase
For each day that you observe a plant, record the date on your datasheet, and for each phenophase, record either:

8. A quick example: Red maple
Let’s try this out. Say you have an individual red maple plant in your yard that you would like to monitor. You go out to this plant for the first time to make an observation on May 5. It seems to be in full flower and upon close inspection you see breaking leaf buds. As of yet you do not see any full leaves or any fruits.
You compare the phenophase descriptions for this plant to what you see on your plant.

9. A quick example: Red maple
First, you consider the phenophase “Breaking leaf buds”. For this plant, “Breaking leaf buds” is given this definition: “One or more breaking leaf buds are visible on the plant. A leaf bud is considered “breaking” once a green leaf tip is visible at the end of the bud, but before the first leaf from the bud has unfolded to expose the leaf stalk (petiole) or leaf base. For Acer rubrum, leaf tips may appear reddish.” You compare this definition to what you see on your plant. It looks like there are quite a few breaking leaves, more than ten, and none have unfolded yet.

10. A quick example: Red maple >10
3/1/2011
>10
As this phenophase IS occurring at the time of this observation, you circle “Y” on your datasheet. You can check your datasheet for recommended intensity notations. Following this you mark “>10” for your intensity measurements on your datasheet.

11. A quick example:
Red Maple
Next, you consider the phenophase “leaves”.

12. A quick example: Red Maple
For this plant, “leaves” is given this definition: “One or more live unfolded leaves are visible on the plant. A leaf is considered “unfolded” once the leaf stalk (petiole) or leaf base is visible. New small leaves may need to be bent backwards to see whether the leaf stalk or leaf base is visible. Do not include dried or dead leaves.” You compare this definition to what you see on your plant. You do not see any leaves from the breaking leaf buds that have unfolded to point where the leaf stalk is visible. 12

13. 3/1/2011
>10
As this phenophase is NOT occurring at the time of this observation, you circle “N” on your datasheet next to the “leaves” phenophase.

14. 3/1/2011
>10
After checking the definitions for the other leaf phenophases you see that your none of these are occurring on your red maple at this time. You only see breaking leaf buds and not a single unfolded leaf yet, so you will circle no for all other leaf phenophases.

15. A quick example: Red maple
For flowers you see that your red maple is covered in fresh, open flowers and meets the definition for both “Flowers” and “Open Flowers”. For “Flowers”, you see “More than 10”, and for “Open flowers”, “Peak Flower” seems to be the best choice to describe your plant on this date. Although both “More than 10” and “Peak Flower” are accurate in this case, you should choose “Peak flower”. You will choose “More than 10” when the tree is no longer in peak flower, but still has more than ten open flowers.

16. 3/1/2011
>10
On your datasheet you circle “Y” for both “Flowers” and “Open Flowers”. You can check for the recommended notation for your intensity measurements on the left side of your datasheet. Following that, you put “>10” and “P” respectively for your intensity measurements.
>10 P 16

17. Next you check for pollen release
Next you check for pollen release. If you can reach a flower, blow on it or shake it and see if pollen falls into your hand. If you cannot reach the flowers to test them you should leave this phenophase BLANK. You happen to be able to reach some of the flowers on your red maple. Of the flowers you can reach the freshest, fully open ones release yellow pollen dust when you blow on them. More than half of the flowers on the tree seem to be in this fresh, fully open state where you can see pollen release, so your tree meets the requirements for “Peak Pollen”.

18. 3/1/2011
>10
On your datasheet you will circle “Y” for Pollen release, and mark “P” for your intensity measurement. If you could not reach any of the flowers on your tree to test for pollen, you would not have circled any choice for this phenophase and left the intensity line blank.
>10 P P 18

19. A quick example: Red maple
Lastly you check your red maple for fruits. You do not see any fruits at all, nor did you see fruits on your last visit that might have fallen since then.

20. So you circle “N” for all fruit phenophases. >10
3/1/2011
>10
So you circle “N” for all fruit phenophases.
>10 P P