Washington, DC’s famous cherry blossoms are starting to bloom, brightening up the city while sending swarms of admiring tourists to Capitol Hill.
But visitors to the picturesque Tidal Basin where the flowers will soon be at their peak may not know that one simple act could land you in jail for an entire year.
Picking the precious flowers or climbing the tree branches are an offense under federal law.
Various statutes and regulations state that it is unlawful to willfully destroy, cut, break, injure or remove any within a national military park or land of the US.
An offender could be ‘imprisoned not less than 15 days nor more than one year’, and fined at least $10 for each ‘monument, statue, marker, guidepost, or other structure, tree, shrub, or plant that is destroyed, defaced, injured, cut or removed, or both’.
National Park Service spokesman Mike Litterst urged tourists not to tamper with the foliage.
‘Please don’t touch the blossoms. Don’t break branches off. Don’t climb the trees,’ Litterst told Fox News Digital.
Litterst added that though harsh penalties can be imposed, National Park Service staff usually try to educate people instead.
‘There are certainly offenses in the code and federal regulations about the use of natural resources,’ he said.
‘But if we see people [doing that], we tend to use that as a teachable moment, not an opportunity to throw the book at them.’
The cherry blossoms bloomed early in Washington and New York last year, with the flowers flourishing by mid-March.
Experts warned that this early florescence was a symptom of warming temperatures worldwide.
The famous cherry blossoms in the nation’s capital experienced their earliest peak bloom in 20 years on March 17 – tying for their second-earliest peak bloom ever.
This means 70 percent of the Yoshino cherry trees along the National Mall and the Tidal Basin have opened their flowers.
It came at the heels of one of Washington’s warmest recorded winters, with temperatures soaring to 80 degrees by late January, the earliest occurrence on record.
The record for earliest peak bloom in history was reported on March 15, 1990. National Park Service data shows that the trees have bloomed earlier and earlier since they were donated by Japan in 1912.
In 2021, the trees reached their peak on March 28, the same year Kyoto registered its earliest bloom in over 1,200 years.
Winter is the fastest-warming season in the nation’s capital, according to Climate Central. An analysis by the nonprofit found that D.C. has added 20 more days to its growing season since 1970.
National Weather Service data shows the average spring temperature in D.C. has risen by 3.6 degrees from 1970 to 2023.