North American First Leaf and First Bloom Lilac Phenological Data

North American First Leaf and First Bloom Lilac Phenology Data

Summary

Lilac is a group of beautiful flowering shrubs and trees native to temperate Europe and Asia. Phenology of many plants growth has shown sequential variation over period of time. Many scientists have been conducting to explore the reasons and implication of such changes on the plant habitat. It is essential to explore the fundamental changes in the phenology of First Leaf and First Bloom Lilac flower.

North American First Leaf and First Bloom Lilac Phenology Data has been used for the period of 1957 to 2002 for California State. Statistical analysis of the data shows that no notable change has occurred in terms of the first day of Syringa Vulgaris leaf appearance in California since 1957 to 2002. Similarly, no notable change has occurred in terms of the first day of Syringa Vulgaris flower blossom, which shows that flower blossom date is almost similar in the region since 1957 to 2002. Additionally, results show that flower first blooming day in a year is significantly correlated with first day of leaf appearance.

Introduction

Lilac is a group of beautiful flowering shrubs and trees native to temperate Europe and Asia. There are about 30 species and numerous varieties of lilacs. Lilacs are grown in all temperate areas for their handsome, often fragrant, flower clusters. The small, tubular flowers, with four spreading lobes, grow in large conical clusters (Schwartz, 1998). Lilac flowers are commonly of the bluish-red color called lilac, but they also appear in white, pink, red, blue, purple, violet, and yellow (Schwartz, 2000). Some varieties have double flowers.

The common lilac grows to 20 feet (6 m) tall and bears clusters of white or purple flowers up to 10 inches (25 cm) long. Its purple blossom is the state flower of New Hampshire. The Persian lilac has pale lilac flowers and grows to 10 feet (3 m) tall. The nodding lilacbears drooping clusters of pinkish-white flowers and grows to 12 feet (3.7 m) tall (Schwartz & Caprio, 2003). The Pekin lilac has pale yellow flowers and grows to 15 feet (4.6 m) tall. The Hungarian lilac grows to 12 feet (3.7 m) tall and has lilac flowers. The common lilac is Syringa vulgaris; Persian, Syringa X persica; nodding, S. reflexa; Pekin, Syringa reticulate ssp. pekinensis; Hungarian, S. josikaea. Lilacs belong to the olive family, Oleaceae. The various varieties of lilacs are distinguished by their color and shape of their petals (Cayan et al., 2001). Thus, 'Joan of Arc' and 'Madame Lemoine' offer pure white flowers while 'Charles Joly' and 'Prince Wolkonsky' are decorated with purple double flowers. Also double, very fragrant flowers of 'Catherine Havemeyer' deploy an amazing cobalt blue (Cayan et al., 2001). Table presented below shows the taxonomy of Syringa vulgaris specie of Lilac flower included in the analysis.

Kingdom

Plantae

Division

Magnoliophyta

Class

Magnoliopsida

Order

Scrophulariales

Family

Oleaceae

Genus

Syringa

Method

Secondary information has been obtained for the Lilac Flower and leaf growth from North American First Leaf and First Bloom Lilac Phenology Data compiled by the IGBP PAGES/World Data Center for Paleoclimatology. In this report, data has been refined to California state region. Other states data has been excluded from ...