Climate change is speeding up the time when trees come into leaf in Spring. In some areas this is reducing the flowering time for wildflowers in early Spring.
For short-lived spring wildflowers such as the Wood Anemone (Anemone quinquefolia), timing is everything. These fleeting plants, known as ephemerals, grow in temperate forests around the world, coming into flower early in Spring before the trees above them come into leaf.
If these plants emerge too early, it will still be winter. If they emerge too late, and it will be too shady under the forest canopy for essential photosynthesis to happen.
Over their evolutionary history, these plants have figured out the best timing for their survival. But climate change is altering spring growing conditions, and plant life is changing along with it.
Research in the US
Research conducted by the USA National Phenology Network investigated this timing by looking at historical records and comparing them with recent records. (Phenology is the study of cyclic and seasonal natural phenomena, especially in relation to climate and plant & animal life).
They discovered that trees in Concord, Massachusetts are more sensitive to the increased spring temperatures due to climate change than wildflowers are. This is resulting in trees coming into leaf earlier, which is reducing the available light on the forest floor. This in turn is affecting the blooming of woodland plants in early spring such as the Wood Anemone.
They extended their work to other regions of North America. They found that as temperatures warm, deciduous trees across eastern north America are coming into leaf faster than native wildflowers are responding.
They found that in the warmer Springs now being experienced, trees were coming into leaf on average 10 days after native wildflowers were blooming, instead of 13 days in the cooler Springs of years gone by. This is giving the wildflowers about 25% less full sunlight time during which to photosynthesize.
As Spring temperatures warm even further with climate change, the researchers expect wildflowers will have even shorter periods of full sunlight. This could mean a sizable decrease in the flowers’ energy supply and ability to survive, grow and reproduce. In other words, fewer wildflowers.
Better news from Europe and Asia
The researchers extended their study by collaborating with colleagues from Germany and China to evaluate over 5,000 tree and wildflower specimens collected over the past 120 years.
A common pattern was found across all three continents. Trees and wildflowers are active earlier now than in the past, and they are active earlier in warm years and places.
However, in a surprising twist, they didn’t see the North American pattern of trees being more sensitive than wildflowers on the other two continents.
In Europe, wildflowers and canopy trees seemed to be shifting together over time. In Asia, the understory wildflowers were shifting more than the trees – meaning they might get more light, not less, in a warmer future.
These results suggest that eastern North American trees have become especially sensitive to temperature as a way of adapting to this region’s highly variable climate.
Denzil Nature 
Nature has her own response to everything, don’t you think? We can only observe and record and try to reduce our impact. 🤔💕
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Yes Jo, it’s amazing how resourceful nature is. But I sometimes wonder if the human-induced changes are happening too quickly for nature to catch up.
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Fascinating point, Denzil. Didn’t realize that aspect although this year I’ve noticed that many of our flowering trees are at least two weeks ahead of schedule.
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That’s a big difference isn’t it? It affects the birds that feed off the insects that eat the leaves of these trees.
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Our insects seem to be out also. Flies are on the donkey’s faces and carpenter bees are busy buzzing around.
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Global chemtrail ingredients are damaging the environment and patterns of nature (this has been going on since the end of WW2) — with globalist governments using weather manipulation through extensive upper atmosphere seeding with toxic chemicals including aluminum — and yes, this IS causing huge erratic climate change and ecosystems destruction as well as harm to humanity). I highly recommend taking a look at Dane Wiginton’s extensive in depth research on his website at: https://www.geoengineering watch.org This is not a conspiracy theory — it is happening everywhere right before our eyes.
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Thanks for the info and link, but I find his claims unbelievable. The same guy is behind the belief that California’s drought is part of a government conspiracy instead of a naturally occurring event from a lack of rain during the last four years.
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It took me awhile to track through his stuff but the intense chemtrailing in my area esp. in the last two years — (whole checkerboarded) and extreme cooling effects and no spring yet remains real. I would say the jury’s still out in this one.
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Well, keep me informed! Who knows? It’s a strange strange world we live in.
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No kidding, you said it!
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Nature either adapts or has species “disappear” due to man made influences on climate sadly 🥺
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Yes, the ingenuity of nature is impressive, its loss is heartbreaking.
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We are certainly feeling the impact of what our industrial ways have had on mother earth. We have snow in parts of NZ and it is only early Autumn. Crazy weather. Love the images, Denzil.
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Thanks Suzanne. Yes, too many crazy things are happening with the climate.
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We make a concerted effort to reduce our footprint, in the hope that every little bit helps.
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We have to believe that every little helps, otherwise we’d despair.
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