Oklahoma Native Plant Record, Volume 15, Number 1, December 2015


4 Oklahoma Native Plant Record 
Volume 15, December 2015 

Wayne Elisens
https://doi.org/10.22488/okstate.17.100110 

PREFACE TO FIRST FLOWERING DATES 
FOR CENTRAL OKLAHOMA 

Wayne Elisens 
Professor of Plant Biology 
Curator of the Bebb Herbarium (OKL) 
Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology 
University of Oklahoma 
Norman, OK 
elisens@ou.edu 

Global climate change is predicted to 
have deleterious effects on human health 
and welfare including frequency of extreme 
weather events, sea level rise and coastal 
flooding, decreased agricultural productivity, 
fluctuating biotic interactions and range 
shifts, and altered seasonality and phenology 
(IPCC 2014). Phenology, the study of cyclic 
and seasonal natural phenomena such as 
flowering and animal migrations, is 
especially important as an indicator of 
changing climates and ecosystem changes 
(e.g., Diez et al. 2012). For plants, tracking 
of first- or peak-flowering events has been a 
common approach to investigate species’ 
responses to climatic factors. Individuals, 
organizations, and botanical gardens have 
recorded flowering times for a wide range of 
species over many years (Tooke & Battey 
2010). Currently, academic as well as citizen 
scientists are actively engaged in gathering 
plant phenological data. Schools, online 
communities, and native plant societies are 
often involved in phenological tracking 
activities (e.g., Haggerty and Mazer 2008) by 
partnering with agencies such as the USA 
National Phenology Network 
(www.usanpn.org).  

Below is a privately printed but 
unpublished report of first flowering dates 
for a variety of species in central Oklahoma 
from 1927–1929 and 1933. Much of the 
baseline data was gathered by Lois Gould in 
1927–1929 (Gould 1928, 1929a, 1929b) in 
central Oklahoma as part of a comparative 

study among 14 midwestern colleges and 
universities. In 1933, Ben Osborn added 
observations from Norman and Oklahoma 
City and organized the compiled data 
chronologically to provide a 3-year record 
of flowering phenology by earliest and 
average flowering date, species name, 
common name, location, year of 
observation, and observer (Gould or 
Osborn). Mr. Osborn typed this report and 
deposited a copy in the library of the Robert 
Bebb Herbarium of the University of 
Oklahoma as “Separate No. 27” where it 
has remained until this printing. The present 
report has not been published formally to 
the best of our knowledge. We hope this 
summary of first flowering in central 
Oklahoma in the early twentieth century will 
assist present-day investigations of the 
biological effects of climate change by 
providing a valuable plant phenological 
benchmark.   

Lois H. Gould, daughter of Dr. Charles 
Gould who was the former director of the 
Oklahoma Geological Survey, received a 
B.A. in Botany from the University of 
Oklahoma in 1930. Her passions included 
art, plants, and birds. Ms. Gould married the 
Canadian entomologist Dr. Ralph D. Bird, 
who taught at the University of Oklahoma 
from 1929 to 1933. Mrs. (Gould) Bird 
moved to Canada when her husband 
accepted a position at a Canadian Federal 
Entomology Laboratory (Anonymous 
1972).   



Oklahoma Native Plant Record 5
Volume 15, December 2015 

Wayne Elisens

Ben O. Osborn received the first 
Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Journalism 
from Oklahoma A&M College (Oklahoma 
State University) in 1931. He began his 
career as a copy editor with the Oklahoma 
Livestock News and was a news and radio 
script writer for the Oklahoma Agricultural 
Extension Service. He then embarked on a 
36-year career with the USDA as a soil
conservationist, information specialist,
speechwriter, and editor for the Journal of
Soil and Water Conservation (Anonymous
1999 ). With co-author Elizabeth Barkley,
Mr. Osborn published a list of the vascular
plants of Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma
(Barkley and Osborn 1933).

LITERATURE CITED 

Anonymous. 1972, March 4. Ralph Durham 
Bird obituary. Manitoba Free Press.  

Anonymous. 1999, November 9. Ben O. 
Osborn obituary. The Washington Post. 

Barkley, E.A. and B. Osborn. 1933. A 
preliminary list of the vascular plants of 
Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma. 
Norman (OK): University of Oklahoma. 

Diez, J.M., I. Ibañez, A.J. Miller-Rushing, 
S.J. Mazer, T.M. Crimmins, M.A. 
Crimmins, C.D. Bertelsen, and D.W. 
Inouye. 2012. Forecasting phenology: 
From species variability to community 
patterns. Ecology Letters 15:545−553. 

Gould, L. 1928. Notes on the phenology of 
middle western spring flowers. 
Proceedings of the Oklahoma Academy of 
Science 8:59−62. 

Gould, L. 1929a. Phenological notes for 
1928 on middle western spring flowers. 
Proceedings of the Oklahoma Academy of 
Science 9:39−42. 

Gould, L. 1929b. Lateness of the spring of 
1928 as determined by comparison of 
first blooming dates. Proceedings of the 
Oklahoma Academy of Science 9:43−46. 

Haggerty, B.P. and S.J. Mazer. 2008. The 
Phenology Handbook. Santa Barbara (CA): 
University of California. 

IPCC, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate 
Change. 2014. Climate change 2014: 
Impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. 
Part A: Global and sectoral aspects. 
Field, C.B, V.R. Barrow, D.J. Dokken, 
K.J. Mach, M.D. Mastrandrea, T.E. 
Bilir, M. Chatterjee, K.L. Ebi, Y.O. 
Estrada, R.C. Genova, B. Girma, E.S. 
Kissel, A.N. Levy, S. MacCracken, P.R. 
Mastrandrea, and L.L. White (eds.). 
New York: Cambridge University Press. 

Tooke, F. and N. H. Battey. 2010. 
Temperate flowering phenology. Journal 
of Experimental Botany 61:2853−2862. 


	Preface to First Flowering Dates for Central Oklahoma by Dr. Wayne Elisens