Winter wonders
The beauties blooming out of season in our darkest days
IT MAY be the dead of winter but Ireland is blooming like never before, with ten times more flowers budding than expected in the coldest temperatures, botanists say.
Only around 20 to 30 species should blossom in January, according to standard textbooks. But research has now found that flowers are even coming out in the snow.
A survey by enthusiasts taking part in the New Year plant hunt organised by the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland found 239 flowering species in the wild in counties from Donegal to Dublin to Cork on New Year’s Day.
The spurt of winter budding is thought to be due to a combination of milder winters, an increase in non-native species in the wild, and increased reporting.
Dr Kevin Walker, the botanical society’s head of science, said: ‘The vast majority of things we are finding, the textbooks will say they flower in the summer, probably lasting through to September but never until New Year. We think people in the past hadn’t really looked at what flowered at New Year. Actually, quite a lot of things do flower sporadically depending on the weather.’
He said that if the trend of milder winters were to continue, ‘we will see a lot more things flowering unseasonably’.
Botanists were not surprised to find the daisy was the top flower found by plant hunters taking part in the survey, followed by the dandelion and meadow-grass, as these would typically flower in winter.
But the fact that buttercups were found was a surprise as they usually only bloom from April through August.
Almost half of the species found blooming were non-native plants, some from warmer climates.
239 species flowering on New Year’s Day