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Glacier Lily (Erythronium grandiflorum)
The life of a Glacier Lily (Erythronium) begins below ground with its long (33-55mm), slender, deeply planted, corm, or in ordinary gardening parlance, its bulb. Out of this springs stems and two lance-shaped (lanceolate) green to greenish-gray long leaves (up to 25 cm) connected to the stem at ground level (basal leaves botanically speaking). From each corm will grow one to five separate stems 15-40 cm long, and from each of these as many as six nodding yellow flowers will emerge, although just one is common.
Where Erythronium likes to reside offers clues about how it lives and prospers. In the Colorado Rockies, Erythronium can be found between 6,500 and 11,000 feet elevation and prefers cool, wet locations with fertile soils. It especially favors wet meadows and slopes that abut streams, lakes, or seeps, and is most common in snow shoots and late lying snow banks. This impatient flower doesn't wait until snowmelt is done but will pop up through the snow itself. Among mountain wildflowers it is one of the first to appear (late May or early June), and in doing so it gains the special advantages of a monopoly on pollinators and access to sunshine, moisture, and nutrients. By showing up early, this species has few worries about competition for resources--light, soil, nutrients, water, and pollinators.
The early arrival strategy brings along with it a serious risk from early snow melt. Over the 33-year period ending in 2008, because of climate change the snowmelt date advanced by an average of 4.14 days per decade. At the same time the mean summer temperature increased by 0.38°C per decade. Despite warmer temperatures, average summer precipitation hasn't changed much, but the first, peak, and last flowering dates for Erythronium advanced an average of 3.2 days per decade. Even before the snow is entirely gone, Erythronium flowers pop up to get an early start, but arriving early carries with it the danger of exposure to night frosts that commonly occur early in the spring, even when daytime temperatures are well above freezing. Flowers arriving at the party early may be stuck out in the freezing cold at night, against which plant parts may lack defenses. Fruit production for Erythronium has been found to be lower in years when late frosts occur. In many wildflower species, more frost means fewer healthy flowers for flower-lusting bees and hummingbirds to do the work of moving pollen from one flower to another completing the reproductive cycle. For Erythronium, however, earlier snow melts doesn't seem to have hurt overall flower abundance even though fruits are sometimes damaged by frost. It's early blooming propensity could well have caused it to genetically adapt to cold night temperatures. Because of its early spring appearance, Erythronium is important as food when little else is available for mule deers arriving from their wintering grounds and for pollinators such as early arriving queen bumble bees and migratory humming birds. Conceivably, if Erythronium moves its blooming peak forward enough, animals dependent on the species for food could arrive too late for a full meal. Changes in the presence of one species can spill over to others in an ecologically interconnected world.
Early snowmelt in mountain settings is so important for wildflowers in general that we should be fully aware of its causes. The steady buildup of human-produced greenhouse gases such as CO2 in the earth's atmosphere has caused global temperature averages to advance in recent years according to the predominance of of scientific opinion. Scientists also acknowledge that climate warming will be felt more extensively than average at higher elevations and latitudes around the world. This means earlier snowmelt and higher summer temperatures in the subalpine Rocky Mountains to the detriment of climate sensitive wildflowers. The irony is that a cold-adapted, early blooming species such as Erythronium may actually be able to handle climate change because of its resilience to night frost exposure that increases as snow melt, daytime temperatures, and and peak flower blooms advance more quickly than incidence of night frosts recedes. Those species that bloom a bit later, such as the Aspen sunflower (Hellianthella quinquenervis), are less likely to be pre-adapted to night frosts and more likely to suffer significant damage to their plant parts from freezing temperatures.
On each Erythronium stem, all the flowers together are referred to as the inflorescence, and each individual is a perfect flower possessing both male and female parts and is capable of self-pollination. In short, a perfect flower is a sexual cross dresser that can make itself pregnant, a hermaphrodite, a beneficial strategy if pollinators are scarce, which could well be the case for an early bloomer whose fruits periodically suffer frost damage. Erythronium has perfection but not completeness with tepals for flower parts but not both petals and sepals. Tepals mean a lack of distinction between petals and sepals.
In a comparative plant survey that repeats survey locations in 2014 for a study completed in 1952, the mean elevation of E. grandiflorum was found to have decreased 138 meters. On the surface this seems unusual. Plant species move up in elevation normally in a period of climate warming to track their optimal temperature range. However, a warmer and drier climate can decrease moisture availability at higher, more opens sites, causing some species to shift downward in elevation to more moist habitats.
Glacier Lily (Erythronium grandiflorum)
The life of a Glacier Lily (Erythronium) begins below ground with its long (33-55mm), slender, deeply planted, corm, or in ordinary gardening parlance, its bulb. Out of this springs stems and two lance-shaped (lanceolate) green to greenish-gray long leaves (up to 25 cm) connected to the stem at ground level (basal leaves botanically speaking). From each corm will grow one to five separate stems 15-40 cm long, and from each of these as many as six nodding yellow flowers will emerge, although just one is common.
Where Erythronium likes to reside offers clues about how it lives and prospers. In the Colorado Rockies, Erythronium can be found between 6,500 and 11,000 feet elevation and prefers cool, wet locations with fertile soils. It especially favors wet meadows and slopes that abut streams, lakes, or seeps, and is most common in snow shoots and late lying snow banks. This impatient flower doesn't wait until snowmelt is done but will pop up through the snow itself. Among mountain wildflowers it is one of the first to appear (late May or early June), and in doing so it gains the special advantages of a monopoly on pollinators and access to sunshine, moisture, and nutrients. By showing up early, this species has few worries about competition for resources--light, soil, nutrients, water, and pollinators.
The early arrival strategy brings along with it a serious risk from early snow melt. Over the 33-year period ending in 2008, because of climate change the snowmelt date advanced by an average of 4.14 days per decade. At the same time the mean summer temperature increased by 0.38°C per decade. Despite warmer temperatures, average summer precipitation hasn't changed much, but the first, peak, and last flowering dates for Erythronium advanced an average of 3.2 days per decade. Even before the snow is entirely gone, Erythronium flowers pop up to get an early start, but arriving early carries with it the danger of exposure to night frosts that commonly occur early in the spring, even when daytime temperatures are well above freezing. Flowers arriving at the party early may be stuck out in the freezing cold at night, against which plant parts may lack defenses. Fruit production for Erythronium has been found to be lower in years when late frosts occur. In many wildflower species, more frost means fewer healthy flowers for flower-lusting bees and hummingbirds to do the work of moving pollen from one flower to another completing the reproductive cycle. For Erythronium, however, earlier snow melts doesn't seem to have hurt overall flower abundance even though fruits are sometimes damaged by frost. It's early blooming propensity could well have caused it to genetically adapt to cold night temperatures. Because of its early spring appearance, Erythronium is important as food when little else is available for mule deers arriving from their wintering grounds and for pollinators such as early arriving queen bumble bees and migratory humming birds. Conceivably, if Erythronium moves its blooming peak forward enough, animals dependent on the species for food could arrive too late for a full meal. Changes in the presence of one species can spill over to others in an ecologically interconnected world.
Early snowmelt in mountain settings is so important for wildflowers in general that we should be fully aware of its causes. The steady buildup of human-produced greenhouse gases such as CO2 in the earth's atmosphere has caused global temperature averages to advance in recent years according to the predominance of of scientific opinion. Scientists also acknowledge that climate warming will be felt more extensively than average at higher elevations and latitudes around the world. This means earlier snowmelt and higher summer temperatures in the subalpine Rocky Mountains to the detriment of climate sensitive wildflowers. The irony is that a cold-adapted, early blooming species such as Erythronium may actually be able to handle climate change because of its resilience to night frost exposure that increases as snow melt, daytime temperatures, and and peak flower blooms advance more quickly than incidence of night frosts recedes. Those species that bloom a bit later, such as the Aspen sunflower (Hellianthella quinquenervis), are less likely to be pre-adapted to night frosts and more likely to suffer significant damage to their plant parts from freezing temperatures.
On each Erythronium stem, all the flowers together are referred to as the inflorescence, and each individual is a perfect flower possessing both male and female parts and is capable of self-pollination. In short, a perfect flower is a sexual cross dresser that can make itself pregnant, a hermaphrodite, a beneficial strategy if pollinators are scarce, which could well be the case for an early bloomer whose fruits periodically suffer frost damage. Erythronium has perfection but not completeness with tepals for flower parts but not both petals and sepals. Tepals mean a lack of distinction between petals and sepals.
In a comparative plant survey that repeats survey locations in 2014 for a study completed in 1952, the mean elevation of E. grandiflorum was found to have decreased 138 meters. On the surface this seems unusual. Plant species move up in elevation normally in a period of climate warming to track their optimal temperature range. However, a warmer and drier climate can decrease moisture availability at higher, more opens sites, causing some species to shift downward in elevation to more moist habitats.