What’s wrong with this picture?
It’s a classic image of springtime, delicate apple blossom unfurling on the branches of an orchard tree. What could possibly be wrong here? The problem with this image lies in the date it was taken. It was taken this year on the 16th September; apple blossom is supposed to emerge around about April time. If this is not eerie enough, the same tree was sporting a heavy crop of apples alongside it’s unseasonable flowers.
Similar phenomena have been observed in recent years. This article written in October 2006 describes unseasonal blooms and other signs that plants and animals are becoming increasingly confused as to the season, probably due to global warming. In 2005 there was a “phantom spring” in November, including sightings of red admiral butterflies, trees in blossom and flowering violets.
Allotment holders and other small growers that I know have reported that crops like cabbages and lettuces benefited this year from a very late emergence of butterflies, which in some places only started to fly in August this year. The dull rainy summer kept them grounded; does this mean that they will be breeding late and therefore risking their caterpillars to the onset of winter?
Perhaps apple trees use light and day length to gauge when the seasons change – if this is so, then it may explain the freak blooms. This summer was possibly one of the dreariest ever, and lack of light for a couple of months may have fooled these trees into thinking that winter has already occurred. I’m going to be watching out for other peculiar effects of our cold, dark rainy summer.
Wow, this is scary. I noticed too that there are some birds here that should be gone by now, and they are still here. Temperature plays the main role in every aspect of nature. Anna
Hi Anna! There are some British trees that use light levels and day length to “tell” when spring has arrived, but most use temperature like you say. For instance this spring almost all our trees came out early because of the warm weather, but Ash trees came out over a month later at the more usual time. In March it looked as if all the Ash trees had died, they were the only ones without any leaves at all. I was wondering if maybe apple trees are also light sensitive; I should have looked it up by now