Hank
Posted on 12/19/2007 5:26:56 PM PST by bruinbirdman
Britain's favourite spring flowers are in danger of becoming extinct because climate change is causing them to bloom too early, environmental scientists said yesterday.
Some varieties are blossoming six months ahead of time, leaving them exposed to serious winter frosts. Others are losing the chance to pollinate and reproduce because their traditional flowering cycle is disrupted.
Climate change is also threatening varieties that prefer the colder weather. This year has been particularly confusing, with a cold, wet summer followed by a mild autumn.
This year botanists have recorded lilacs, which are supposed to flower in May, coming into life in November, six months early.
Camellias usually bloom in late winter to early spring, but many were in full flower this year by the end of November.
The Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew have reported that crocus plants have shifted their average annual flowering patterns by two months in the past 50 years. Nigel Taylor, Kew's curator, highlighted the risk of winter frosts to flowers blossoming too early.
"We have been running our own phenology study called the Kew 100 which is looking at year on year changes across 100 plant species," he said.
"Since the 1980s and the last decade we have observed marked changes in more than three quarters of the species whose biological patterns depend on temperature.
"The big risk to these plants is when the frost sets in. It opens them up to disease."
Scientists fear that many of the plants blooming out of season will fail to pollinate.
Bluebells in particular are timed to flower in time with the arrival of trees leafing overhead and providing shelter. If they start flowering before that, they may die without spreading their pollen.
Guy Barter, from the Royal Horticultural Society, said: "On some occasions the flowers have shot their bulbs, whereby they use up all the flowering buds available."
The local climate change of Great Britain has almost nothing to do with any aggregate world climate change. Local climates are changing all the time. The “global warming” we are experiencing is just an average. Good Gravy, what idiocy!
God help us?
When you can blame a “cold wet summer” on global warming, you can believe anything. I guess Pope Gore has declared it so.
ping
ping!
“Some varieties are blossoming six months ahead of time, leaving them exposed to serious winter frosts.”
Let’s see they are blossoming ahead of time because it’s too warm and that’s why the SERIOUS winter frosts are killing them. But if the SERIOUS winter frost is killing them then it’s still too cold, but the warm temperature is killing them by making the..... Error! Error! This does not compute! Warning Will Robinson, warning! warning!Illogical! Illogical! BFFFFFFFFFFFT!!!!
Hank
Why would a SCIENTIST be worried about this. The plants will simply evolve their way out of this mess.
I'm not panicking. The plants are better prepared to deal with the weather than I am! LOL
Every 5 years or so, it seems, my standard lilacs don’t bloom, but the hybrids bloom every year, no matter what. The same years that the lilacs fail to bloom, some of my hybrid iris also do not put out buds, while the common iris bloom no matter what.
While it may be due to those years being the ones without a real spring, where we go from 30-40 to 75 in a few days, the same plants flower wonderfully the following year. Also, in those years of no real spring, everything from common iris to peonies and lilies will bloom within the same 2-3 week period. I hate this, as I like my flowers to go through a progression of blooming, so there is always something in flower.
I just put up with it, having no other choice. I have been gardening on this same property for 34 years and the main standard lilac bush is over 100 years old. In speaking with other local gardeners, the hybrid irises seem to perform spottily for everyone. And, like your peonies, I will have peony plants and iris leaves green and growing as early as February, if it is warm enough. The iris leaves will remain green through even a few snows, if it is 40 or so.
I am in zone 4a...it is listed as 4b, but my land faces north and is low in a valley, so the microclimate is cooler/gets less sun than many surrounding farms.
Now, the weeds seem to flower and thrive no matter what the weather.
~~Anthropogenic Global Warming ™ ping~~
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