ARTICLES
Climate Change confuses Flowering Trees (continued)
There are numerous wattle trees there, amongst quite a variety of trees surrounding the wetland, and growing on those natural islands.
Their golden ball flowers are already starting to bloom – yet as I write this we’re still in June; the spring is well over two months away. It’s
not only the wattles that have lost a sense of season! Lots of other trees are already in bloom, including banksias and other flowering
types, since the weather is already warm enough to begin the natural process, despite the briefest of “winters”, even here in Sydney.
I plan to return to that gorgeous place several times over the calendar winter to take more photos as the bushland grows towards the
springtime, for the wondrous change of appearance of the bushland is interesting to watch as the weeks of winter sweep by. In fact,
over several winters there is one set of three wattle trees that always seem to blossom before the rest, especially the southernmost one.
9th July:
Across the opposite side of
the lake a number of other
wattles are starting to bloom
as well - but starting well
behind those on the west.
The 3 trees are seen, taken
from the north this time to
show how advanced the
main tree is relative to the
others. Their flowers are not
yet in full bloom.
This is the main wattle three weeks
later; it's wattle flowers are out, the
wattle scent is strong, and bees are
quite abundant.
And it's not just the flowers
that are convinced that
spring has indeed arrived.
There are waterbirds here
even in winter, but now they
are really active - almost
2 months before spring.
There is yellow on several trees already, but on most trees where they have begun to sprout they are very small, with small round buds,
so far without the fine hairs (stamens). The second photo displays the three wattle trees mentioned previously that always seem to
blossom first. The third shows the southernmost tree, which already does display some typical wattle flowers. The delightful perfume of
the wattle is strongest there, and numbers of bees are already buzzing around. A banksia a little further south displays the first young
“bottlebrushes” of the springtime, so not only the wattles are confused by the warmth of modern winters, and have begun to bloom in
mid-winter.
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SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 68 NO 3