If you've ever been tempted to press one of your favourite orchids, you might be aiding science research in the future.
Orchid blooms collected up to 150
years ago in Victorian England show that old collections of pressed plants
around the world can help the study of climate change, scientists have agreed.
Ecologists compared samples of
early spider orchids, held in collections with labels recording the exact day
in spring when they were picked in southern England from 1848-1958, and dates
when the same flower blossomed in the wild from 1975-2006.
They noticed that warmer years
were linked with earlier flowering. In both cases flowering was advanced by
about six days per 1 degree Celsius rise in average spring temperature,
according to the Journal of Ecology.
The match between higher
temperatures and quicker flowering for both old and modern orchids showed for
the first time that botanical collections could be a reliable source to study
climate, even if temperature records were lacking, they said.
Vast numbers of specimens of
plants and animals are in collections around the world, some of them dating
back 250 years and long before there were reliable temperature records in many
nations.
A UN panel of climate scientists
said in 2007 that average world temperatures rose 0.7 degree Celsius (1.3 F)
over the 19th century, mainly in recent decades due to a build-up of greenhouse
gases from burning fossil fuels.
The 77 pressed orchids, picked
when in full bloom, had meticulous records of dates and sites. Early spider
orchids have greenish petals and a purple-brown part which looks like the back
of a spider.
Above: pressed flowers and leaves in contemporary Chinese-style
By Pamela Kelt
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