Delay of bloom blamed on climate change
Flowers that fail to open early in spring may be taking cue from previous autumn
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/340952/title/Delay_of_bloom_blamed_on_climate_change
Those of us who try to create orchards know that certain fruit trees won’t even bloom if they didn’t have a long enough, cold enough winter. It turns out, rather expectedly, that there are plenty of other plants that are not orchard fruit trees that also require that cold signal. So, as the winters get warmer on average, certain plants will dramatically reduce their seed production, which means that they will not be replaced when they die, so in the long run these species range will move north (and higher in elevation, where possible) to compensate. The biggest loss to humans, though, likely will be that many fewer spring flowers to enjoy. Of course, as the plants to the south experience the same effect, they will migrate north also, so I guess overall we will see a similar variety of flowers, just a different collection.
