#climate zones

[lifewithchronicpain]

What climate zone do you live in?

Tropical Wet

Tropical Wet and Dry

Semiarid

Arid

Mediterranean

Humid Subtropical

Marine West Coast

Humid Continental

Subartic

Tundra

Ice Cap

Highland

Voting ended onDec 20, 2023

Classifications based on this map because it has 12 answers:

Source

And so people don't yell at me, there are other classifications, like these, the options just don't fit in the amount allowed for the poll. Hence going with the "Climate for kids" model.

Please feel free to add into the tags any preferred labels for your climate zone.

Please signal boost for larger sample size!

Bonus Question:

Put your answers in the tags, Rate the seasons in your climate in the tags. For example I would rate the seasons: Fall, Spring, Winter, Summer.

I couldn't make a poll for this so I decided to tag it onto this one. C:

[welcome-to-my-world-98]

*exhales in motivated worldbuilder*

Now. I finished the general notes on the climates. Yes, every "group" has a separate sheet for easier navigation and convenience. Now for the less funny part like geology, currents and winds.

(Why am I making it logic? Why am I making it harder on myself?)

[onlyscarcelyscaly]

Just getting around to posting these now that it's been weeks since I sent them in, but here's my second series of maps for @jayrockin‘s Runaway to the Stars project! This is the home planet of their Avian species of aliens, and being predominantly ocean-covered and having an obliquity of only 11 degrees, these factors result in a somewhat more stable, less seasonally variable climate than we see on Earth. Every image here is helpfully (hopefully) captioned, but for a quick summary, these maps represent the elevation data (with and without a color gradient and water systems); the seasonal ice extent (limited to the Equinoxes and an Annual Average since the Winter and Summer sea-ice extents aren’t that different and there’s very little land ice outside the poles); and maps showing the Average Annual Temperature, Total Annual Precipitation, a combination of the two along with a key, and, finally, a map broken down into distinct zones based on temperature and precipitation, ice cover, mountains, seasonality, and Continentality vs Oceanity, based loosely on the Trewartha climate classification system. Digital Painting (Photopea) 2022 Higher resolution copies of these maps can be found in my Reddit post about this : )

[scriptflorist]

What are some plants that will grow and flourish in my character's garden in Vancouver when planted in spring but would die quickly in winters? Why do I constantly find conflicting care info and I also how far outside parameters it takes for a flower to die rather than just in poor condition?

Sounds like you’re looking for plants your character can grow outside, for which a rule of thumb is that flowering plants don’t like the cold. I’d say none of them but that wouldn’t be fair to Christmas roses which do require a certain amount of cold to grow properly, this however still required proper rooting prior to the cold as well as specific parameters of cold. Usually I’d say use humans as an example, if it’s too cold for people to be outside without a jacket in winter it’s too cold for plants as well. However Canada is pretty cold, colder than Germany and I have no idea when Canadian’s start wearing jackets in winter, so to avoid misunderstandings let’s try to say this in clearer terms.

Below zero °C is too cold for 90% of plants. A good chunk of trees and shrubbery can usually withstand it, and conifers tend to keep her green exterior almost regardless of temperatures, but most other hardy plants are usually reduced to exposed bark, which protects from the cold and anything beneath the grown (protected by the surrounding soil) – anything soft and green and flowery is prone to die.

Tufted pansies are an odd exception which are pretty good at handling the occasional cold night during late winter/early spring and somehow don’t droop immediately. Christmas roses could too, however prolonged exposure to extreme freezing temperatures are guaranteed to kill any plant over long or short. So the good news is pretty much anything that isn’t hardy won’t make it into the next year, and what your character specifically is looking for might be annual plants which don’t live longer than a year to begin with.

Not that hardy plants can’t die in winter, but chances are if they were planted in spring they had a chance to take root properly and your character managed to bring them through several months before that without any bigger issues, so the culprit in this case really would only be the cult. That all being said, your character can plant almost anything they have the space and ability to care for them. The key points for care are generally pot size (think shoes, if the roots are sticking out the pot is too small), sunlight (how much is needed, full, half or as little as possible?), temperature (for most plants that starts at around 10-12°C with a tendency towards room temperature of around 20°C, if this cannot be given naturally then a greenhouse is fine, although this would defeat the purpose of having the plants die in winter).

Your character could also plant bulbs, like tulips and hyacinths, although these are exclusive to spring and don’t come back after that until next spring.

Alright so what does that mean for Vancouver?

Vancouver is pretty far south for Canada (right near the border) and it's also right on the Pacific coast. So it's very wet, and not as cold as the interior of Canada gets. Vancouver is listed as hardiness zone 8b mostly, so most plants would probably do decent there until a freeze if they were not winterized (dormant, covered, brought inside, etc) but maybe some zone 9a plants would be hit or miss. There's some pockets of zone 9a around Vancouver, so it could be one of those "why are their azaleas flourishing and mine keep dying?" sorts of things.

– Mod Jana

Disclaimer

This blog is intended as writing advice only. This blog and its mods are not responsible for accidents, injuries or other consequences of using this advice for real world situations or in any way that said advice was not intended.

[bensakindofmagic]

“Will you give me yourself? Will you come travel with me? Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?” ~ Walt Whitman

ben hardy x climate zones, requested by @billytheskywalker

[scriptflorist]

climate

“OK, sounds great. Thanks a bunch if you could help me out here.

So, for the first climate zone, it is quite hot like 35 degrees year round in the day, nights are only a tiny bit cooler. It has some rain, but not so much. It is also coastal so gets a bit of storms where it cools down to 20 degrees and a lot rainier but there’s pretty much like 1 every 2 or 3 years. It gets a whole lot of sun in all the time but there is a lot of shaded areas as well.

A second climate zone is grassland but it is very high in the mountains at 3500m elevation and has a lot, a lot of winds. Cold snowy storms blow in so it can be -20 to -10 degrees for four months of the year, covering the ground in frost. Warmer months can get up to 25 degrees. There are sometimes droughts in the summer. There are higher mountains toward the east and and block the sun until it’s noon.

My third climate zone is a desert it can be 40-50 degrees during the hottest part of summer and 35 degrees normally, has frequent sandstorms. It rarely if ever rains. But in the winter it can go down to -10 degrees and has snow for about a month every year. Parts of the desert is volcanic as well with pretty much no plants. The sun shines all year round, even in winter.

My final climate zone is a large modern city at about 2000m elevation on the side of a mountain that is kind of polluted because of factories blowing over from the cities below. It never has snow but it has a lot a lot of rain. It is very humid and muggy in the summer. The temperatures are generally around 30 degrees in the summer and 10 degrees in the winter. There can be quite a breeze when it’s cool. It is quite shady because of the mountain as the city is nestled on the northwest side.” - FD

Hey fd,

so, the first climate zone of your story sounds a lot like tropical climate, you wanna look for what grows in rainforests and places like Hawaii. Also, places which have rainstorms. Anything that grows near or around the equator, like orchids, gloriosas, strelitzias or bougainvillaeas and dipladenia. Hibiscuses, as well as anything that looks remotely like a palm tree and quite a lot of ferns too. However just because these plants are used to a lot of heat doesn't mean they prefer a lot of sunshine too. In many cases the plants in question cannot stand long hours of sunshine because their natural habitat is overshadowed by large trees which only let a little sunshine through. For example orchids. (Most epiphytes are tropical plants so that would another thing to look into.)

Second climate sounds like the Alps. More or less. Maybe less, I've never actually been there but image-wise it conjures up a similar place in my mind. Here you're looking for cyclamens, edelweiss maybe, lots of short grass, trees usually don't grow up so high on a mountain anymore and even shrubs are a rarity. Gentian and rock garden plants would suit that environment well too. What you're looking for are plants which are tiny and have tiny flowers. They have to be able to grow in small and rocky spaces as well as having to withstand possibly harsh winds to long stalks aren't preferable. Ground covering plants, in general, are much more common than anything else in high altitudes. Basically, the higher up a mountain your character goes the smaller and fewer the plants become before there are no more plants at all. During winter nothing but stones and any wooden plants parts should show because that's basically all which can withstand the cold. Not counting Christmas roses.

For the third one think cacti. Cacti and euphorbias but the needl-y kind, not the flowery kind. Trees grow in deserts but they are far and few between and usually look kinda garnly. Desert plants tend to have very small and thick or no leaves at all. If they have larger leaves they tend to be thick because the plants use them to store water in them. Succulents, the word for those plants is succulents. Any leaf thin and large easily becomes crisp and brown in the desert heat. Now deserts do bloom and if they do they're really pretty, and there are probably some videos on YouTube you can watch, but it's also a once a year thing after it rained a lot. For the most part, it's like only tree in the middle of nowhere maybe and the rest comes in clusters around lakes.

Hmm. The fourth one’s kinda tough. If you live in a city you probably know that only few things grow in between the cracks of stones. Mostly dandelions or grass. Most other areas that contain plants are parks or these small areas with a single tree in them and some flower around it that tend to break up the pavement sometimes. The elevation is likely not going to bother the plants, but the pollution and humidity and lack of space are going to be a bother. Shade is not necessarily a problem, it'll just mean that likely less flowering plants grow than any other. Trees and shrubs are most likely going to make it and whatever plants the citizens can keep alive in their gardens and homes. And if they have a green thumb that might be more than anyone would expect.

I hope this was helpful if you have any more questions ask away.

– Mod Jana

Disclaimer

This blog is intended as writing advice only. This blog and its mods are not responsible for accidents, injuries or other consequences of using this advice for real world situations or in any way that said advice was not intended.

[scriptflorist]

How do I make up some flowers that sound plausible? I mean, something like bioluminescent flowers.

Hi Nonny,

to make a believable plant first we take a look at the climate it thrives in. If it’s based on the real world, you should take a look at the Köppen climate classification, which is most commonly used to illustrate our worlds different climate zones and gives a good overview on how they’re structured. Below you’ll find a rather simple version of a world map and our climate zones. As you can see it’s not exactly clean cut.

(Source)

If your world is fictional to any degree and you haven’t figured out its climate zones that well or at all, don’t despair now. The most important thing right now is to focus is the climate the plant is growing in, you’ll be surprised how much it will be able to tell you about its looks and growth. For an easy example let’s look at dry and desert-like places. Harsh sunshine makes for small leaves, succulents or thorns instead of leaves. (Cacti have thorns, and roses have pricks, not the other way around, just trust me on this, it’s true and accurate.) Cold generally kills plants, which is why our poles have only snow, but Greenland still has plants growing. Equator plants largely grow beneath the shadow of large trees, so while they’re generally used to heat and warmth, they cannot stand direct sunlight for extended periods. Temperate climates usually can grow a large variate of plants, even from other climate zones however those usually can’t stand the autumn and winter.

How much sun (heat factor), wind (dries soils), rain (keeps it wet of course) and shadow (keeps soil from drying out just a little longer) does your plant get? How warm or cold is the place, is it a bog or fen (depends on how acidic the ground is) which makes for mushy, wet soil in general. Give them bloom cycles and consider what happens when someone cuts them (how long do they live, if at all) or what happens when they are replanted into a different climate. Can they stand being indoors or do they die within two days like margarites? Are they hardy or do they have to come inside when it gets cold?

If you’re going to break any of these conditions (aka our reality) for the sake of your world, let there be a reason, which is a little deeper than just someone yelling “magic!” Have your characters study the plants, trying to explain why they behave the way they do even if the end result is that they just can’t figure out how it works, e.g. they don’t have the necessary technology or scientific methods to figure it out.

So now that we’ve covered that, how exactly do we make bioluminescent plants?

Bioluminescence is a form of chemiluminescence and considered the production and emission of light by an organism. Chemiluminescence describes the emission of light in response to a chemical reaction, and when the whole thing happens inside a life form that’s when it becomes bioluminescence.

There have been several tries of humanity creating bioluminescent plants since the 1980s, however, most being futile. The most recent and probably most well-known try was in fact kickstarted in 2013. So far our idea of creating bioluminescent plants is to create a GMO (genetically modified organism) and why not, DNA at its core is all the same bolts and screws. Which makes the theoretical idea quite plausible. Take the genetic code that makes the light from one being and glue it into the DNA of your plant of choice. (Yes, we have the technology to do these things, no I am not going to elaborate, we do floristry, not genetics.)

If it only were that easy. Turns out genetic manipulation is a little more difficult than that. (We are not going to discuss whether that’s a good or bad thing, this is simply stated as a fact nothing more.)

For a plant to actually glow a little tiny molecule called luciferin is needed and required to react with its corresponding enzyme luciferase. Two things plants do not naturally produce. The general problem here is to incorporate this process into the plant with all the genes and DNA intact and have it act as a natural part of the whole organism. One of the reasons the previously mentioned Kickstarter hasn’t shipped any plants to this day is exactly that one of the genes broke while they implanted it into the plant, which of course made no bioluminescent plants at all. One of their future goals was, in fact, bioluminescent trees, but let’s guess that’s not going to happen for a long time with how things are progressing.

An actual success in the field proved to be the Avatar Starlight created in 2010 inspired by the flora from the 2009 movie Avatar. The company website is unfortunately down, but going by the fact that it was sold at an auction (and presumably at much more affordable prices at an online store for a while afterwards) I think we can say it was at least a short-lived success. The plants lived for approximately 2-3 months and a quick Google search will easily pull up multiple articles about the plant.

Scientists have also managed to develop an algae powered street lamp, which admittedly isn’t bioluminescent at all, but instead making use of the photosynthesis to power it, but that’s still pretty cool.

Now, fungi. Fungi don’t exactly count as plants, they’re more or less they’re own thing, but over 75 species are considered to be bioluminescent, so it’s definitely not a thing exclusive to bacteria, insects and deep-sea fauna.

When it comes to plants I think one of the major questions is also what for is it bioluminescent? Animals have all sorts of reasons for that behaviour and prettiness isn’t exactly on the list, although it could fall under the attraction purpose (to attract prey or mates), other uses include attack, defence and communication. Considering your world is already fictional, why not give these plants a cool reason for their appearance.

For anyone feeling like it, you can also brave this academic article by the guy who developed the Avatar Starlight. I admit I haven’t read it, I tried to, but it just made my brain hurt even skimming the paragraphs. I am pretty sure it is interesting though and I would like to clarify that this blog cannot give a statement on the article and its opinions at this point. This is simply linked for all those who want to further their research even more.

- Mod Jana

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Disclaimer

This blog is intended as writing advice only. This blog and its mods are not responsible for accidents, injuries or other consequences of using this advice for real world situations or in any way that said advice was not intended.

[scriptflorist]

Hello! My character is a florist in a medieval kinda era in Europe, and lives in a climate that is very humid, though not hot. Greenery flourishes during spring and summer, but during winter, near nothing grows. I'm sorry if this is a really broad question, but could you help me out with a wide variety of flowers and/or herbs that may grow there, and how she might have to deal with the state of the plants in winter? :< Thank you so much for the work you guys do!

Heya!

From what you’re saying it sounds like your characters are living in a humid continental climate. Now I don’t know if that’s what you had in mind, or if your Europe and this Europe are alike enough to fall on the same scale, but for the sake of this ask that’s what I’m going to go with. Because if your climate isn’t among Köppen’s classifications you broke reality and then I cannot help you because real life plants don’t exist outside of this.You’re lucky though. Germany falls into that climate zone and in fact, I live in a very rainy city, so whatever may grow here will likely also grow in your character’s yard. Let’s talk a little more about climate though before we get to that. When it comes to humidity we’re talking rain and a lot of it, and too much rain can kill a plant just like drinking extremely excessive amounts of water can kill a human. So your character will have likely build sheds or extended their roof or made a canopy of some sort if it keeps raining for days.

When a plant is overwatered they absorb water faster than they can use it which causes their roots to be waterlogged. Plants need to absorb nutrients, water and air through their roots. If the soil doesn’t drain well enough, it will hold the excess water from the heavy rain and the roots won’t be able to get air, effectively drowning them to death. Which in return keeps the plant from taking up nutrients and oxygen and die in the process. Leaves will appear wilted and yellow and buds fail to open. Edemas form, cells that burst from too much water and form blisterlike areas on the underside of the leaves, if rot doesn’t kill the plant first as it’s now more susceptible to diseases, fungi and pests.

Overwatering is a curable condition, however, that’s not easy and it’s generally more difficult than recovering from having too little water. Other than that a lot of plants will rot when you dump a bucket of water on them, simply because their foliage is so thick and full only a really harsh sunny day might be able to thoroughly dry it. It’s what plants do – they rot when you soak them in water. (Unless they’re underwater plants.) A side effect of a surplus of roof will be that your character can keep plants outside in the spring/summer that don’t necessarily like rain in the first place and might not even grow in their area in the first place.

Winter. Winter is tricky. Your character will likely grow their flowers in a field, which is good and solves most of the problems that arise in winter. Generally, a plant needs about three to four weeks to properly take root, which is essential for a plant to become hardy. Now your character likely won’t buy potted plants much I imagine so it won’t be that big of a deal, but it’s still something for her to keep in mind if she wants to add one to her garden. Now when it’s cold and freezing outside and the plants have been trimmed to size it’s time for your character to find a forest, because what she’ll need is fir and pine and conifer and lots of it. All of these, especially fir is used to cover the remnants of her plants with. It’s not particularly necessary in a garden, but it keeps the plants snug and warm and basically, there is no downside to this other than that it takes up time. All potted plants, however, do need a cover of fir, they will also need something (in the 21st century we use bubble wrap, she might just use more fir and a rope or has something entirely else figured out) to wrap the pots in. She might also consider taking the pots inside just to be sure.

At last, all the plants need is water. Not much though, a little once a week should be fine, but there’s a catch. See, it’s winter, the ground freezes occasionally preventing watering. So she can do everything right, but frost can still kill her hard work because she can’t water her plants and they die from dehydration or just freeze to death.

This isn’t a must, but it would be handy for her to have her garden separated into clear sections so she can uproot and dispose of the plants which aren’t hardy more easily in time, so replacing them becomes easier. It would give her some form of control over what grows when and where.

Before we get to the list, let’s talk about her business in winter. There might not be a lot around, frankly, maybe all she has is conifers, pine and fir. Even if it’s just that, she can still make arrangements. Let her make wreaths and garlands and decorate them with ribbons, jewellery (light in weight preferably), dried fruits and nuts and whatever else she has at her disposal to add a little colour. Any plant she might have put aside during summer & autumn to dry can now come to use. She can even make floral arrangements with moss (which was the predecessor of floral foam) or clay. Moss was used because of its exceptional capability to soak up and store water which then would supply the cut flowers, clay is preferable for things that dry. I did, in fact, make Christmas arrangements with clay before, they didn’t contain flowers, just conifers and that worked just fine. When using moss (the regular kind you’ll find in any forest) she will have to make sure it tightly secured into place before starting on her arrangement. Another agreed upon alternative for floral foam is Iceland moss, which looks a bit like a sponge and has this cool effect that it’s really soft and squishy when wet but gets hard and firm when dry, which makes it perfect for arrangements meant to dry. (Or someone who has trouble figuring out if their arrangement needs water… could be something some of her customers appreciate.)

It’s hard to say which plants exactly grew in medieval Europe, so this is more of a mix of “I’m selling this and I know it could grow in my garden if I had one” and “this grows somewhere outside where I live.”

Trees: Oak, willow, birch, chestnut, acorn, fir, pine, conifer, catkin *)

Shrubs: Lavender, carnations, hydrangea, rhododendron, campanula, roses, peonies, ornithogalum (accurately nicknamed gardener’s spook because it’s nearly impossible to get rid off), helleborus

Flowers: Marguerites, chrysanthemums, dahlias, geraniums, petunias, jasmine nightshade

Bulbs: Allium, tulips, hyacinths, daffodils

Herbs: Rosemary, thyme, basil, mint, oregano, chives

Greenery: Ivy, muehlenbeckia, moss, Iceland moss, buxus, panicum

*) Florists work with twigs and tree bark. The former we use to make a sort of frame for bouquets, for example, the latter to hide floral foam most of the time.

- Mod Jana

Disclaimer

Sources:

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/signs-overwatering-plant-49515.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humid_continental_climate