A Wandering Botanist

In northern Colorado, at 5000' elevation, the last week of January 2015, I found plants in bloom!

We had daily highs above freezing, some days up into the 60's, some nights above freezing all night. In a search for "plant records" I have a quirky goal of finding plants flowering in every month of the year. So I went out looking for flowers on January 29. Some species do not need many days above freezing to launch their buds.

Erodium cicutarium, redstem filaree, Jan. 29, 2015

And I found [drum roll]: Erodium cicutarium, redstem filaree! Also called redstem storksbill and common stork's bill (geranium family, Geraniaceae), it is from the Mediterranean region of Europe and was introduced to North America by the 1800s. It is now very widespread (every state but Florida and all the Canadian provinces that border on the U.S. (see USDA map)).

But it is January, the depths of winter in the northern United States. How can plants be flowering?


Global warming?  Maybe. All over the world they are recording earlier and earlier warm temperatures.

However, I want to think about how plants respond to unseasonable weather.