When the crabapples come ashore en masse on Bucklin Beach at Little Lake Sunapee, you know the summer season is ending. Their annual journey across the lake to spawn on the sandy beach typically culminates around the full moon in late August, but pomologists still don’t fully understand the mechanism by which crabapples synchronize with this cycle. They hypothesize that the behavior is a means to protect and spread seeds more widely. But how do the crabapples know?

09.05.23