The peach tree announces climate change

* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
20 February 2024 Tuesday 16:06
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The peach tree announces climate change

* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia

It is not a mirage. We are not in spring, but it is still, in theory, winter, but the peach tree insists on being the image of climate change and has already begun to bloom, as we see in the Photos of the Readers of La Vanguardia in this specimen portrayed in El Far, a population entity in the municipality of Susqueda, in the La Selva region.

The flowering time of the peach tree depends on the variety, but it usually occurs between the months of March and April. We have also already seen that, for example, the cherry tree has also advanced its flowering by approximately a month.

The peach tree is a species that can present autogamy (pollination with pollen produced by the same flower is a necessary but not sufficient condition for this mode of reproduction to occur, since the pollen must be able to germinate on the stigma, grow in style and carry out double fertilization).

But, it can also present cross-pollination, especially in those varieties that are male-sterile (a condition by which hermaphrodite or bisexual plants are incapable of producing anthers, pollen or functional male gametes) and require the presence of a pollinator.

Be that as it may, this winter pollinating insects are much more active due to the mild temperatures. The almond tree is one of the fruit trees that first blooms in the Spanish fields, it can already be seen in bloom even in January, but this year it seems that the peach tree has decided to claim early recognition by joining the almond tree in this February of flowers.