Macroscale patterns of flowering and fruiting phenology in China

By Richard B. Primack

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundation under them.” - Henry David Thoreau in Walden.

Patterns of phenology are increasingly examined at larger geographic scales with on-line databases and digitized herbarium specimens. In a recent paper in the Journal of Biogeography, Chinese colleagues and I examined the timing of flowering and fruiting of over 16,000 plant species from China using over 1,300,000 records.

Spiranthes sinensis, the Chinese ladies tresses, is a herbaceous orchid species 
that grows in China. (photos courtesy of Du Yanjun)

We found that across the geographic range of China, plant species flowered earlier and fruited later at lower latitudes and lower elevations. In comparison with herbaceous plants, woody plants flowered earlier, showed stronger geographic trends, and needed a longer time for fruit development.  Variation in flowering was most strongly affected by mean annual temperature in woody plants and by temperature seasonality in herbaceous plants.

Antiaris toxicaria, the arrow poison tree, grows in Chinese forests.

These results suggest that woody plants and herbaceous plants will respond differently to climate change, though this needs to be confirmed by investigating individual species and specific locations in greater detail.

This study is noteworthy for the enormous number of species, observations, and geographical scale included.