People noticed an unusual sight this year: plants bursting into flower during autumn. By Samantha Harrington | Thursday, December 10, 2020 (Photo credit: PaulaN / Wikimedia) While visiting his parents’ New Jersey home in late September, Andrew Goldman noticed something strange: Their crab apple tree was blooming. Goldman, who works with edible plants and lives in Rhode Island, said the tree typically blooms in April. In the 20 years his family has lived in the house, he can’t remember its ever having bloomed in the fall before. (Photo credit: Andrew Goldman / ISeeChange) Goldman wasn’t alone in observing this phenomenon. In the fall of 2018, others posting at Yale Climate Connections content-sharing partner ISeeChange noted rhododendron, lilac and apples blooming throughout the Northeast. Anna Cash’s crab apple in Milford, Ohio, bloomed during the last week of September 2020, and she spotted strawberries flowering in her community garden in October.