Re: ARE WE THERE?
- To: M*@ucdavis.edu
- Subject: Re: ARE WE THERE?
- From: R* F* D*
- Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2001 11:16:20 -0500 (EST)
At 11:17 PM 1/15/2001 -0600, you wrote:
> "helene.pizzi" wrote:
> Plants are acting odd here in Rome this winter, and Italy has suffered
> (to say the least) from top to toe with strange violent attacks from
> Mother Nature. Rome has had scirocco winds and warm weeks so far this
> winter. We read that odd weather patterns are occuring all over the
> world this year.
>
It has ben about twenty years that I moved to North Carolina from
Massachusetts. Since this was my first chance to continuously work with
plants, I became more conscious of the weather. I can say there has been no
year with normal weather. It does seem at first thought that the
differences are getting more dramatic, but on further reflection, much of
this is probably the result of comparing fresh memories with older, duller ones.
What I notice as a corollary is the bloom periods of my Salvias. As a
group, I can always expect one to a dozen of them to suddenly burst into
bloom at some weird time of year. For instance, Salvia divinorum, S.
wagneriana and the Smith College involucrata are usually very shy. Another
year, S. madrensis was found to be in full bloom one summer in mid-July.
Yet another, S. karwinskii burst out in early autumn in my cold frame. Not
all sages bloom simultaneously, and their synchronization also varies.
Of course, how big a plant, when it was last pruned, how well it has been
fed and watered are also relevant factors. Even insect attack, another
weather and stress-related factor, has to be considered, since plants
respond to these attacks in interesting ways.
Each plant has evolved to respond to its own native growing conditions.
Salvias are a very diverse group of plants, and are found under a tremendous
variety of conditions. It might be interesting to record their blooming
aberrations as barometers of change. Collection information on select forms
could be used to correlate native weather patterns with current ones to see
if there are any effects (but have fun designing good control experiments to
root out other factors)!
If I only had the time. Ernie, this sounds like a good task for someone at
Cabrillo.
Richard F. Dufresne
313 Spur Road
Greensboro, North Carolina 27406 USA
336-674-3105
World of Salvias web page:
http://www.eclectasy.com/gallery_of_salvias/index.htm
or
http://home.infinet.mindspring.com/~salvia/salvia.htm (to be phased out)
