Floral Fumo Fridays of the Week (Belated) New Years Edition: Perennial Plant Dormancy (Plant shown: Rubus occidentalis)
Oops, I was late again! It seems that the winter has made me more sleepy and dormant than usual. 😉 This was supposed to be a new years post, but tbh ppl are still saying "Happy New Years" to me soooo.
Yuuka rampaged through the mountain to get a better view of Gensokyo and its border. She noticed that during her journey, temperatures felt more spring-like and the snow started to melt quicker than before. But winter was just getting started! She knew she hadn't journeyed that long as the sun rose and set as it would during winter. This was a strange phenomenon: The snow should stay throughout the season, but all throughout Gensokyo temperatures had rose and the snow had all melted. Later on in her journey, the temperatures significantly dropped back to winter temperatures, but there was little snowfall. She thinks that this could be related to the rumored "vampire" causing a rampage within Gensokyo.
Yuuka once more peered at various locations in Gensokyo, and noticed another strange phenomenon. For one, the village normally played loud music to celebrate the new year around this time. The music used to be so loud it would be heard across Gensokyo, but this year no music could be heard. Instead, she heard music from another source: a red mansion by the lake. Yuuka knew that this mansion was from the Outside World and has played music for quite some time, so maybe the villagers simply relocated their festivals.
One last time, she looked at another village located on the borders of Gensokyo. The village had a towering mansion situated at its center, and Yuuka thought that the building could be the home of the hibernating sage.
Yuuka thought about this sage, Yukari Yakumo, whom she met a few months ago. She was the only active Gensokyo sage around after the barrier was formed, as the others seemed to have disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Yukari said that she was hibernating for the winter and that her "shikigami" would solve the incident, but the incident had no chance of stopping at this rate. Even worse, temperatures are spring-like and snow is melting, so surely this sage would awaken from her dormancy, right? The only way for Yuuka to find out is to go to this village on the borders of Gensokyo that could be her home, so she then descended from the view of Gensokyo at the mountain.
This one isn't about any specific plant, but it's about a phenomenon that happens in many organisms called dormancy. Dormancy in general is a survival technique used by many organisms during harsh conditions such as winter, where temperatures can average to below freezing temperatures and growth comes to a halt. When it comes to flowering fruit trees and tree-like plants, such as plants in the Rosaceae family, it is used to retain water and nutrients as well. We will use tree-like perennial fruit plants, like this Black Raspberry cane (Rubus occidentalis) as examples, as tree and tree-like perennials that flower and fruit are used as models of the dormancy cycle.
Black Raspberry (Rubus occidentalis) is a plant that is part of the rose (Rosaceae) family just like multifloral rose (rosa multiflora) of a previous post. Rosaceae contains numerous wooded plants and trees in temperate climates that follow a similar dormancy and vernalization pattern, and spring is when we can see a lot of their flowers. The name "Black Raspberry" or "Blackberry" can refer to other species of Rubus with similar colored fruits, so let's ditch these names for now and call it by its formal name Rubus occidentalis. It is native to a wide range of regions in North America, spanning from warmer to colder climates and regions that experience both. The stems of Rubus occidentalis are considered stalks or canes that have a glaucous and powdery sheath. Normally during spring and summer the stalk has a more blue-green look, but when this plant is in a dormant state it looks more haunting with a woody purple-red color. We will talk more about the rest of the features of this plant like the flowers and fruits later on during the spring and/or summer.
When later summer into fall happens, leaves slowly start to turn brown and shed and the stems/bark become discolored. Some plants flower and ripen their fruit at this stage, as we've seen in earlier posts. This phenomenon is called paradormancy, a transitional period between an active growing state and endodormancy that is triggered by various environmental factors outside the plant like shorter days and cooler temperatures. Plants have an internal "clock" to track the passage of winter as they spend time in cold temperatures below room temperature but above freezing (roughly 5-10 degrees celsius) which causes them to eventually stop growing but accumulate chilling and transition to endodormancy later in the fall leading up to winter. We have seen some plants earlier go through this period during the fall with withering leaves and the colors of their stem and bark discoloring until they are completely dormant.
In endodormancy, plants must accumulate a specific amount of chilling units and hours spent in the cold in order to survive the winter and regrow flowers in the spring. Keep in mind, Rubus occidentalis is a perennial plant native to very warm climates, but they are also native to some of the coldest climates, so it can withstand many harsh temperatures below freezing while dormant. At this stage, the ability for the plant to grow is completely halted.
Later on and once it is done accumulating enough chill units, it will enter a period of dormancy called ecodormancy. Some tree and tree-like plants that bloom in late winter and early spring will show buds at this stage or even earlier. At ecodormancy, it is simply waiting for temperatures to get above freezing so it can break free of dormancy. This time, the plant requires heating units rather than chill to become active again. Once it has accumulated enough heating units spending time in temperatures above freezing in spring, perennials will exit the final stage of dormancy and transition to being active and growing again.
Finally, various plants around the world have different methods of dormancy, and there are many things about dormancy that we simply do not know about.
PS: The photos were taken minutes apart and during noon! The first photo was taken earlier than the rest but when i got a photo of the plants themselves clouds immediately blocked the sun so they look more discolored. Here's a rejected photo taken when the clouds covered the sun that I still wanted to post. Also, if you have a garden of Rubus occidentalis or find them in the wild, you can help them grow desirable fruits in the later spring or summer by pruning them around winter.
The fall colors and spring blooms are tell-tale signs of the changing seasons. Have you ever stopped to wonder what makes a tree lose its le
Abstract Attempts to discuss the various aspects of plant dormancy can be bewildering due to the excessive number of nonphysiological, indep
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A warm winter means woody plants will be ready to grow when the weather warms up.
The process by which plants use a prolonged cold period – winter – to promote flowering is known as vernalization…
Every winter my euphorbia goes into dormancy and loses all its leaves and every spring I'm so worried it wont come back but look at this baby go! New leaves! And they're at all the nodes! I'm so excited!
First of all, have in mind that im not a professional in any way - ive learned most things about plants from my mom or by simply teaching myself from books and the internet, also English is my 2nd language so I might use wrong terminology sometimes bcs you know.... this is a hobby to me.
First of all, let’s start out by finding out what ‘dormancy’ even means. You can read TONS about this, and learn about how different species have different needs (succulents and cacti have different needs than tropical plants and orchids for example...). However, as a plant owner I think the most important thing is to know about the phenomenon, not to be an expert.
Another important thing to have in mind are hardiness zones or plant zones. It has to do with sunlight and temperature, which is important to adjust during winter. This is also important to have in mind when you read plant advice online - something that works in one zone might be wrong in another hardiness zone.
WATER 💦
Cut down on watering in general. Colder temperatures means less humidity means less evaporated water. The plant should be resting, and not encouraged to grow. By creating similar conditions as in real nature, you can give your plant its best life. For example, cacti needs less water and colder temperatures for a period of time to be able to bloom during summer.
LIGHT 💡
If you’re like me - can’t wait until I finally get to see the sun again in April next year, the absence of daylight is a seasonal struggle. Even for the plants. Depending on your plants individual need, you might need to invent in some growing lights/light bulbs. I’ve moved all of my plants closer to my brightest window.
CARE ❤️
Remove yellow or damaged leaves, to prevent the plant from using energy to care for damaged parts. Rotate pots so plants grow straight. Try not to repot with new soil until next spring.
True plant dormancy requires exposure to a cold period to resume active growth. This ensures winter survival and avoids growth starting during mid-winter mild weather.
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