The annual New Year Plant Hunt was cut short by the weather this year, but members of the Sid Valley Biodiversity Group still recorded 51 different plant species in flower around the town in the middle of winter. The wealth of winter flowers is impressive, but it also has a serious message, nature is responding to our warming world.
There is nothing new about changes to the climate, a mid-winter plant hunter twelve thousand years ago would have been unlikely to find anything flowering in our valley because we were at the tail end of the last ice age. The current concern is that the climate is changing more quickly now than at any time in the past that we can know about. The balance of causes I will leave to other discussions, this article is just a record of what we have now.
In his book Flora Sidostiensis 175 years ago, local doctor W.H. Cullen thought it noteworthy that Red Campion could be found in hedges “everywhere and flowers all the winter”, the only species where he mentions this, presumably he would have mentioned any others if he had found them. The Biodiversity Group’s month by month survey in 2021 recorded ten species in flower in all 12 months of the year but this included plants such as the Mexican Fleabane and Trailing Bellflower which are modern introductions unknown to Cullen.
Plants produce flowers to breed, to produce seeds. Many species are assisted in this by insects and other wildlife. In our part of the world, nature shuts down for winter. Insect pollinated plants generally do not flower in winter because it will be a waste of energy, it is too cold for pollinators to fly, bumble bees need about 9o C before they can take off.
Plants respond to daylight length through their photosynthesis and soil temperature through their root activity in their annual cycles. The daylight length hasn’t changed noticeably but, although I don’t have data confirm it, I think the soil temperature patterns have changed.
Our winters are becoming less harsh with fewer frosts and more warmer spells. John Tindall’s beach diaries of the 1920s actually record the river freezing and one of the swans that used to live by Alma Bridge being trapped in the ice. Below the immediate surface, the soil takes a long time to cool down or warm up. Without regular and hard frosts, the soil keeps its summer heat for longer, the plant roots don’t shut down and the plants keep on growing. The croquet club used to put the lawn mower away in late October, now we cut at least once a fortnight through to January.
With the exception of petty spurge, daisies and dandelions, most of the species found in flower in this year’s hunt had only a few flowers in particularly sheltered spots. There was a lone snowdrop in the riverside woodland by Margaret’s Meadow in the Byes. If you go back in February, there will be thousands in a delightful green and white carpet. If you do find wild flowers in January, enjoy them but also think about the message they are sending out.
A full list of the species found in flower can be seen below.
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