Aru Nair
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
And the National Parks team, it's actually their job to predict when the peak bloom will arrive every year.
And let's just say it's kind of a guesstimate.
Today on the show, the art and science of guessing peak bloom.
What are the stages of cherry tree blossoming?
And how do scientists make that big prediction?
Well, I didn't really know.
So to find out, I went with one of our producers, Hannah Chin, down to the tidal basin.
It was damp and chilly.
You could hear the jets overhead and the trees looked totally bare.
That sounds like D.C.
We went there to talk to Matthew.
He told us there's six stages of cherry tree blossoming.
I love a numbered list.
Okay, walk me through these stages.
So to set the stage, in winter, the trees are dormant.
It's like they're sleeping.
And on these dormant trees, the tips of the branches are covered in overlapping bud scales.
These modified leaves that protect the bud to be, if you will.