Roller-coaster temps could prove detrimental to plants
Any damage can create havoc for the food chain
Warm temperatures before spring can be a welcome sign of better days ahead.
However, record highs — like those in Hampton Roads this week — followed by steep drops could be a detriment to blooming trees.
Some plants tie their yearly cycles to the availability of light and water — but others, such as magnolias and cherry blossoms, respond to warming temperatures, said Les Parks, director of horticulture at Norfolk Botanical Garden.
This could just mean a tree has an irregular blooming schedule for the year. But it becomes dangerous when frost returns after a period of warmth, damaging the fragile buds.
“If you’re a fruit tree farmer and your fruit trees bloom too early, then you’ve lost your crop for the year,” Parks said.
Parks said peach trees in northern North Carolina and apple orchards in the Virginia mountains could be affected by recent warm temperatures.
“I would say the biggest problem is with global warming,” Parks said. “All the insects tie their reproductive cycles to the availability of food, which a lot of times is plants.”
If the availability of plants is out of sync with insect life cycles due to irregular weather patterns that cause plants to bloom too early or too late, fewer insects survive. In turn, birds and other animals that eat insects have a more limited food source.
“If it all gets out of whack, then some of our native species could have a more difficult time feeding their young,” Parks said. “It’s going to have detrimental effects far down the food chain.”
The temperature fluctuations over the past few years also can create difficulty for plants.
“When we have a cold winter and it stays cold, the plants get used to it and they sort of ease into it,” Parks said. “But if you go from the 60s and then all of a sudden you’re down into the teens, that causes a lot more damage. It’s the roller coaster effect that’s a problem instead of the steady decline or the steady increase.”