A Comparative study of the flowering phenology of wild growing geophytes in two different mesoclimatic areas in the Carpathian Basin

Abstract

Plant phenology - timing of cyclical or seasonal biological events - has proven to be a very sensitive indicator for climate change impacts. The phenology of many plant species has been advanced by warming, with earlier spring species being more sensitive. To understand better the driving factors of the changing phenology we investigated the phenology of different wild growing geophytes in the Carpathian Basin for three consecutive years. The study has been carried out as an ex situ experiment in two different mesoclimatic sites, one in the Gödöllő Botanical Garden of the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences (average temperature 11,35 °C), other in the Eötvös Loránd University Botanical Garden, Füvészkert in the central part of Budapest (average temperature 13,16 °C). During the experiment 5 replicates of 5 wild growing geophytes were examined. The results show an advance of 3.64 days in Budapest, with strong variation across species. The earliest flowering species didn’t bloom (Galanthus nivalis) or died (Eranthis hyemalis) by the 3^rd year in the site Budapest. If global warming continues, this advance and negative effects on wild growing plant species might be more serious in the future.