Abstract
State-sponsored weather stations became ubiquitous by the 1880s, yet many old climate data and phenological observations still need to be digitized and made accessible. We here make available flowering times for 450 species of herbs and shrubs gathered in 1844 by Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius (1794-1868), director of the Munich Botanical Garden. The data formed part of the world's third-oldest phenological monitoring network as we explain in a brief overview of the history of such networks. Using data from one of the world's oldest continuously functioning weather stations, Hohenpeißenberg, we relate temperature to flowering in three species with short flowering times and herbarium collections made since 1844 within the city's perimeter, namely, Anemone patens, A. pulsatilla, and Arum maculatum. Mean advances in flowering dates were 1.3-2.1 days/decade or 3.2-4.2 days/1°C warming. These advances are in keeping with similar advances in other European herbs during more recent periods. Future studies might use the 1844 flowering data made available here as a source of information on the availability of particular flowers for specialized pollinators including insects looking for oviposition sites, such as the Psychoda flies that become trapped in Arum inflorescences. Another use of Martius's 1844 data would be their incorporation into larger-scale analyses of flowering in southern-central Europe.
Highlights
This page was generated automatically upon download from the ETH Zurich Research Collection
Future studies might use the 1844 flowering data made available here as a source of information on the availability of particular flowers for specialized pollinators including insects looking for oviposition sites, such as the Psychoda flies that become trapped in Arum inflorescences
In a study of 385 British species with flowering data from 1954 to 2000, most were found to flower earlier in 2000 than in 1954; 10 species, flowered significantly later (Fitter and Fitter, 2002). As illustrated by this and other examples, phenological responses to climate change are highly species-s pecific, and it is important to have empirical data from a broad range of species monitored at multiple locations if we are to understand the mechanisms underlying leaf-out, flowering, or fruiting times under climate change
Summary
We here make available flowering times for 450 species of herbs and shrubs gathered in 1844 by Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius (1794–1 868), director of the Munich Botanical Garden. Martius was secretary of the mathematical-natural science section of the Academy from 1841–1 868 and, in this function, ran the section’s monthly meetings, maintained its records, and engaged in correspondence with members of other academies We found his handwritten notes on plant phenology in an appendix to the Academy’s Archives entitled “Beobachtungen über den periodischen Fortschritt der Vegetation angestellt an 500 Pflanzen waehrend der Monate April, Mai, Juni u. Botanischen Garten zu München” (“Notes of the periodic development of vegetation based on the monitoring of 500 plants during the months of April, May, June, and July 1844 in the royal botanical garden in Munich”; Martius, 1845) These pages were photographed at high resolution and plant names, observation dates and any notes entered into an Excel spreadsheet (Microsoft, Redmond, CA, USA).
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
