Early Bloomers: Using Citizen-Science Data to Investigate Unseasonal Flowering in Joshua Trees
Published:24 Jan.2022 Source:Florida Museum of Natural History
In November 2019, visitors to Joshua Tree National Park in California encountered a strange sight. Joshua trees and closely related Mojave yuccas, which normally remain reproductively dormant until late spring, were in full bloom at the tail end of autumn.
In a new study, researchers at the Florida Museum of Natural History used citizen-science data to determine the cause of the anomalous bloom and predict when similar events might occur. As climate change alters weather and environmental patterns, plants respond by producing leaves and flowers earlier in the year, losing them later and shifting their ranges. Monitoring and understanding these large-scale patterns is a lot like taking the planet's pulse.