News from a scientist – Will we collect blueberries this winter?

2018-10-23T11:34:38Z

Dear all,

In the Czech Republic, we have an old fairy tale called On Twelve Moons. Maybe you know it. In the story, poor little girl Maruska gets an impossible task from her bad stepmother. She has to go into the forest in the middle of the cold and snowy weather and collect strawberries and blueberries. She collects them, but only thanks to the help of the Twelve Moons, who turn the winter into the summer for a while.

If the story happened this year, Maruska might not need the help of the Twelve Moons at all. In the pictures that Lenka Hajkova from the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute sent us, we can see that blueberries are just flowering. Let´s see, maybe we can go picking blueberries this winter:-)

Drought Reaction of the vegetation of the Czech Republic in October 2018
Lenka Hajkova and Jan David Reitschlager

Drought in the Czech Republic is constantly deepening and continues to negatively affect the vegetation in the Czech Republic. In the second half of October, we conducted a field trip to find out how the plants responded to drought with only occasional precipitations and to the weather that is unusually warm for this period.

We have seen several curiosities: new leaves on Lime, new leaves on lilac, new blossoms on blueberries and perennial ryegrass newly growing on a dry meadow.

The information found is interesting, although this is just a fraction of field research across the Czech Republic.