5-27-14 Early salmon berry blossoms - Toksook Bay, Alaska, USA
Observation: Yukon-Kuskokwim region, this is the first time I've seen salmon berry flowers bloom in month of May. The berries normally began blooming in early to mid June and are ready to be harvested by late summer through to the early fall season.
Consult: Jerry Hupp, Research Wildlife Biologist, U.S. Geological Survey writes, *they look like high bush salmonberry (R. Spectabilis) as described in this email correspondence shared by USGS: "It's a little outside the range map given in Verna Pratt's' book. But, not unreasonably so. Good question on flowering phenology. I'm not aware of a compilation of that data for Alaska. I'm sure there are records scatted in various studies. I did a quick search on the National Phenology Network website and found one study on the Alaska Peninsula conducted by Susan Savage with the Alaska Peninsula NWR of FWS. Also, I believe Christa Mulder has been looking at long-term flowering phenology of blueberry based on examination of herbarium records. Pulling together the flowering phenology of berry species around the state would be a nice project."
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