Lavender, Lavandula angustifolia, is a native shrub with a distinctive purple color that characterizes the country of Croatia very well. It grows along the coast of the country, and is widely known for its strong calming fragrance. The island of Hvar is lavender nirvana, because when the aromatic fields are in bloom in June, the gentle winds envelop everyone in the scent. Lavender is a highly aromatic evergreen shrub found in dry grassy slopes and desired in gardens, as it attracts bees and butterflies. This helps to pollinate other plants in its vicinity, and lavender honey is a delicious local delicacy. It survives in lower temperatures, which is why it has spread from the coast to the continental Croatia. It is used in perfumery, aromatherapy, and as an ornamental plant. It can also be used to flavor foods and to make a soothing tea. The essential oil is distilled from the flower tops, and can be used medically to treat anxiety, stress, and lack of sleep because of its sedative qualities.
Climate Change/Conservation Status
The geographical location of Croatia within the Mediterranean region does not portend well for the future of the well-being of the country. Temperatures are on the rise, and the warming of the sea is affecting the migration patterns of fish. This warming trend and alteration of the water patterns across the country, are affecting forestry, agriculture, and human health. Serious conditions are projected by researchers, should the mean temperature rise by more than 2 degrees Celsius. Such an increase would be devastating to all of the country’s many ecosystems.
Lavender is well-adapted to Croatian climate conditions and although it is susceptible to changes in weather and rainfall, it is doing well at this time in Croatia. However, harvesting lavender is done manually or with simple harvesting machines in the country and is physically strenuous work. Sun and increasing heat make the job even more physically demanding for harvesters.
Alternate Names Lavandula Despik Lefendel
Sources Climate Change Post, n.d. Croatia. Centre for Climate Adaptation. [website]
Guiot, J., & Cramer, W., 2016. Climate change: The 2015 Paris Agreement thresholds and Mediterranean basin ecosystems. Science 354, no. 6311, pp. 465-468. DOI: 10.1126/science.aah5015f
Kuzmanić, A., & Perić, I., 2019. Croatian cities don’t care for climate change. Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso. [website]
Nikšić, D., n.d. Tourism Is Saving Lavender on Hvar. Total Croatia Sailing. [website]
Permanent Mission of the Republic of Croatia to the United Nations. This statement can be found on the World Sensorium original website.
The coffee plant has played a significant cultural role in Costa Rica for hundreds of years, and in some way, the plant involves almost all the citizens in the country. Coffee flower is a significant scent in Costa Rica, and Coffea arabica makes up 71% of all the world’s coffee. It is actually illegal to grow any kind of coffee other than Arabica in Costa Rica, as this is the highest quality kind. Costa Rican coffee is known for its rich full flavors. Coffee beans are often plucked and processed by hand from the plant, and farmers take great pride in this. The dried seeds are roasted and ground, then brewed into coffee. Coffee is used as flavoring in many desserts and candy, and overall, it is an excellent source of caffeine. It is known to be a stimulant, and to reduce headaches.
Climate Change/Conservation Status
Costa Rica’s combination of environmentalism, effective policymaking, and practice have merged to make it a country worth emulating. In the 1940’s, over 75% of the country’s woodlands, primarily tropical forests, were devastated by unchecked logging. Conservation International describes the country’s transformative actions to combat the exploitation of natural resources: “First, it diminished deforestation, increasing forest cover from just 21% in 1987 to over 50% by 2005. Now, Costa Rica has directed its attention to another natural treasure: the sea. Addressing threats such as overfishing, illegal fishing and mangrove degradation, the tropical country continues to show the world how the protection and restoration of nature can enable growth and prosperity.”
Costa Rica is now focused not only on preserving their status as one of the earth’s most biodiversity rich countries, it has brought national awareness to its endemic flora. However, like many other biodiverse nations, it is under some of the most severe threats of climate change. Its cloud forest, Monteverde, a tourist destination for the world, is experiencing such high temperatures that it has become hard to distinguish it as a cloud forest. As temperatures are increasing, both animals and plants are moving to higher elevation, but some can go no further.
Preserving the tropical forests and native plants that provide both food and nesting sites for bees has proven to be an extremely wise conservation measure. Forest bees need mature trees for their nesting sites. Over 400 species of bees that are native to Costa Rica and additional pollinators are among the healthiest in the world. These bees, which are vital resources to the coffee farms, have thus far been more insulated from climate change than in other countries. Scientists have projected that the mountainous areas of Costa Rica may stay cool enough in the immediate future to support coffee growth and essential bee populations.
In 2019, Costa Rica announced that it will strive to be free of fossil fuels by 2050. To address the effects of global warming, it will use chiefly hydropower, but also wind, solar, and geothermal energy. The New York Times positions Costa Rica to be a model for developing countries to grow their economies through decarbonization strategies.
Despite Costa Rica’s exemplary efforts to conserve biodiversity, the effects of the climate crisis are taking its toll on the coffee plant. Increased temperatures, extreme changes in rainfall, and an ongoing battle against a beetle called the coffee berry borer have resulted in an extreme drop in overall coffee production nearing 50%. The ideal growing conditions for Arabica coffee plants are between 64 and 71 degrees, and temperatures that move out of that range interfere with photosynthesis and the transfer of nutrients. Temperatures are unfortunately rising.
Alternate Names Arabian coffee
Sources Cimons, M., 2017. The bees behind your morning coffee might be in big trouble. Recurrent. [website]
Conversation, n.d. Conservation International Costa Rica. Conservation International. [website]
Permanent Mission of Costa Rica to the United Nations. This statement can be found on the World Sensorium original website.
Sengupta, S., & Villegas, A., 2019. Tiny Costa Rica Has a Green New Deal, Too. It Matters for the Whole Planet. The New York Times. [website]
Zúñiga, A., 2016. Dealing with climate change in Costa Rica’s treasured Monteverde cloud forest. The Tico Times Company. [website]
When you think about climate change, the first images, for me anyway, are uncomplicated—a sad polar bear floating on a piece of ice, a melting glacier, a severe storm, (with news crews grasping microphones as large objects whip by their heads).
The images are visceral and important. They serve as warnings for human behavior that, unless changed, will lead to climate uncertainty and social disruption. But they are also illusory, they show pictures of the “other,” of animals and places that few of us have encountered, let alone experienced. Often it is entertainment, the thrill of watching an accident in real-life, a way of experiencing our fears without doing real harm to ourselves.
A large majority of people, even in the United States, recognize climate change as real, but the percent who are actively changing their lifestyle, aggressively fighting to prevent climate change is much smaller. Why?
Pushing back is personal. If we experience something firsthand it can affect our outlook, or psyche, in ways that cause us to fight back, to try and make a difference. But, sadly, for many of us, climate change is impersonal, something that is happening away from where I live, and while I may be concerned, I am not motivated to prevent it. Real, personal harm is not involved. Yet there is another aspect of climate change, a fundamental feature that affects you directly, whether you live near an ocean, or a polar bear. It is a characteristic that is basic, and essential to your life, to your well-being.
And I doubt you have ever heard of it.
If you have read anything about climate change, then it is not news to you that carbon dioxide, CO2, is recognized as the primary global warming or greenhouse gas. The concentration of CO2 has already increased by about 30% since the 1960s and will increase another 50% by century’s end. Adding billions of tons of it to the atmosphere each year results in a rapidly warming world and an uncertain climate.
But CO2 does something else as well, something directly. It is a resource for plants—the more CO2, the more plants will grow.
And while that may seem, well, good, it’s more complicated. Because it turns out that plants growing faster doesn’t mean they are growing better. There is mounting consensus that rising CO2 will affect plant chemistry, and not always in a good way. Numerous scientists and nutritionists are showing that more CO2 will result in less protein, and a dilution of elements such as zinc and iron in plant tissues.
So what? If polar bears are removed from peoples experience, are plants any better? Would a city dweller (most of the world’s people live in cities), care what CO2 might be doing to plants? It’s not like they are living on a farm or in a forest.
And yet, every city dweller must, by necessity, come into contact with plants on a daily basis. What do we call these encounters?
Easy. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Food comes from plants. They are necessary to human needs. And if you mess with it, if you lower the quality, you will be affected no matter where you live. Rising CO2 has consequences beyond climate change.
It is the nature, the breadth of those consequences that has been the subject of my research since the 1980s. I and others have documented that recent increases in CO2 have lowered the protein concentration of rice, a global food consumed by 2 billion people each year. And not just rice, protein is declining in wheat, which is the basis for more food products than any other cereal, from pie crusts to Pop-Tarts, from ramen noodles to rolls. Potatoes, oats, barley are also showing a decline in protein.
There’s more. The decay in elemental concentration of micronutrients like zinc and iron as CO2 rises is also significant. Micronutrient deficiencies can associated with stunting, a condition associated with approximately 22 percent of children globally (~150 million); deficiencies can harm cognitive development, metabolism, obesity, diabetes, affecting health and human suffering across the globe.
There is another aspect to the rapid increase in CO2 that will also affect diets. If nutritional qualities decline, sugars and starches appear to be increasing. The juxtaposition of declining quality, with increasing carbs has been called “the junk-food effect” by Irakli Loladze, a mathematical biologist at the Bryan College of Health Sciences. And a friend.
Needless to say, this role of rising CO2 is not only directed to plants, but for those animals that consume them. Such animals, like cattle, are also part of the human diet and will, in turn, be affected. A seminal study by USDA researchers showed that future CO2 levels will degrade the protein content of forage grasses, with substantial consequences for the rate at which cattle gain weight during the primary growing season in North America.
The role of CO2 on plant nutrition will also influence other agricultural activities. One of the most important is pollination. Pollinators, especially bees, are essential to global food production. Roughly 30 percent of all the fruits and seeds we consume are made possible by pollinators.
So where do pollinators get their food? Well, plants—specifically from nectar, which supplies their carbs and pollen, which supplies their protein. But if CO2 reduces pollen protein…
So I led a team to test this. We contacted the Smithsonian Museum—a great place to visit—but also a unique scientific resource, and we asked to look at their pressed samples of goldenrod. Goldenrod being one of the last sources of pollen for bees and other pollinators before they overwinter. We tested flowers from the 19th to the beginning of the 21st century for their pollen protein and found a correlation between the rise in CO2 over the beginnings of the industrial revolution and a decline in the protein content of the pollen. We repeated this observation in the field, using a unique experimental set-up designed by Wayne Polley, a USDA scientist, to expose natural populations of goldenrod to different CO2 concentrations—with the same result.
The upshot was simple, not only can CO2 affect people food–it can reduce the nutritional quality of food for pollinators as well. What will this mean for bees—already subject to environmental stress? Hard to say, but as pollinators go, so goes human food. Einstein supposedly said, “If the bee disappeared from the surface of the Earth, man would have no more than four years left to live.” The origin of the quote is murky, but I have no doubt that were he alive today, Einstein would agree.
Research related directly to what CO2 can do is, to say the least, not well funded, and often ignored relative to the sexy apocalyptic headlines generated by climate change. But it is continuing. A recent analysis in Advanced Science News has indicated that carotenoids, essential for their anti-oxidant properties, and present in the colorful spectrum of fruits and vegetables that we eat are also declining in response to rising levels of CO2. Work that I was fortunate enough to participate in, tested a wide range of different rice varieties in China and showed that rising CO2 can also lower the concentration of essential B vitamins in rice, something that could be of particular concern for countries like Bangladesh, where 70% of daily calories come from one primary food source—rice. Other work I’ve been involved with has even shown that rising CO2 could increase the concentration of Arachis h1, the primary allergenic protein in peanut, at least for some varieties. What will CO2 mean for food allergies?
We ignore what we eat at our own risk. A study published in July 2020 by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition highlights that diet related illnesses in the United States are increasing, with inadequate nutrition recognized as a leading cause, killing over half a million people every year. Millions of people remain malnourished, especially among the poor. A situation that will get worse as atmospheric CO2 continues to rise.
It can, in fairness, be hard to relate to climate-driven crises involving polar bears, melting Antarctic glaciers, fires in Australia, or hurricanes in Puerto Rico. Unless they are occurring to you, they are occurring to the “other” and, following, an initial feeling of concern, too easy to dismiss. A set-aside worry, not an actionable item.
But if the quantity and quality of the food you put into your bodies is changing, not by climate–but But if the quantity and quality of the food you put into your bodies is changing, not by climate—but directly—by the underlying driver of climate change, carbon dioxide, then you, and every person you know, is being impacted. It isn’t happening to the “other.” It is happening to you—to your children, your parents, your friends. It’s personal.
Time to fight back.
Lewis H. Ziska, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University; WS/C Board of Advisors.
Plantings cultivates innovative ideas and fresh perspectives, nurturing the global conservation community. Our readers find inspiration in forward-thinking individuals and approaches dedicated to fostering a better life for the planet and all its inhabitants.
The 2023 edition of Plantings is available in our store for shipping.
We are particularly smitten with Adeline Jadot and her eco-contribution of Spicy Maki to Eat More Plants this month. It not only resonates with our Ocean focus, but the artist also has a lot of radical ideas about food. Join Adeline Jadot in savoring the flavors of compassion and sustainability.
Chef Wyatt Anthony Piazza, executive chef of vegetable-forward Philadelphia Restaurant, Kiddo, shares the recipe for one of his pasta dishes. Bucatini with Chestnut Mushrooms and Pea Tendril Pistou is a favorite at Kiddo and is vibrant in both taste and color.
Spinach dough filled with organic vegetables au gratin and vegan coconut cheese. Over seasoned creole bean puree and served with ajillo paste (not spicy). Garnished with dots of creamy avocado and circles of fresh holy leaf, caviar quenelle, and sprouts from our garden.
Starting with a medley of fresh celery, onions, carrots, garlic, and an abundance of fragrant herbs, I tailor the quantities based on whether the soup is intended for pure enjoyment or to serve as a revitalizing elixir.
In this interview, former astronaut Nicole Stott, draws insightful parallels between the collaborative problem-solving dynamics of space missions and the challenges we face on Earth.
As fashion industries seek more sustainable alternatives to their current environmental transgressions, aquatic plants emerge as promising options with exciting aesthetics.
Despite their unique, diverse, and very specialized evolutionary adaptations, here’s why orchids continue to elude science—including efforts to save them.
The scent of many tropical spices are deeply ingrained in the collective memory of winter holidays, evoking feelings of warmth, nostalgia, and celebration. How’d that happen?
Sitting down with co-founders of landscape architecture and urban design firm Dept LLC, to discuss how placing ecological principles in the design process can encourage more successful projects.
Drawing from her own experience discovering the history of Cornwall, a county in England, she reflects on how stories and legends of the land shaped her understanding of the natural world.
She describes how we can grow delicious, natural, and exciting ingredients in our gardens so that we might make meals that comfort us during trying times.
The Cocktail Renaissance over the past couple of decades has not just taken place in the United States, it has happened in Europe too. The art of great craft mocktails and cocktails has elevated human connections. Over drinks, interesting people who take a while to loosen up, and say interesting things. This might be partially true with a drink titled Confession, created by Confessions, a new bar in Brussels.
In front of the UNESCO headquarters in Paris is a beloved vegetable garden growing ancient tomatoes. The city oasis promotes biodiversity, sustainable living, and urban farming.
Climate change is forcing plants, animals, and insects to move in search of supportive habitats. Sam Stoeltje reflects on invasion biology and the stigmatizing label of ‘invasive’ species.
By Jacob S. Suissa & Ben Goulet-Scott November 1, 2023
Let’s Botanize is an educational non-profit spreading knowledge and appreciation of plants. If you’re on social media you may have seen their entertaining videos.
Torrential downpours sent muddy water racing through streets in Libya, Greece and Spain and flooded parts of Hong Kong and New York City in September 2023.
Talk about a melting pot! Mauritian cuisine is a unique blend of many culinary traditions and in this month’s Eat More Plants, you find an inspired recipe that will leave you feeling happy and satisfied, from Mauritian chef, Siva Perumal, of La Maison des Anciens de l’ULB, an alumni restaurant at Université Libre de Bruxelles. You’ll want to make Chef Perumal’s tasty and super healthy vegan Lima Bean Curry a family staple.
By Gayil Nalls, Liz Macklin, and Karen Bauer September 1, 2023
The role of our senses in seeing and experiencing nature directly is crucial to the process of drawing, and to understanding that we are part of nature.
The fashion industry leader, and WS/C advisory board member, offers these guidelines to help companies be more responsible, accountable, and sustainable in their operations.
An outline for a strategy that would allow businesses to promote themselves and promote sustainable practices, leading the way towards a net zero carbon emissions future.
In a pristine part of the Everglades, explore the importance of habitat preservation through the lens of the fantastic work of the National Audubon Society.
An interview with Deidre Fraser, about her work with the critically acclaimed Niagara restaurant Pearl Morissette and her creative sensory relationships with plants.
Our contributing editor of ecological thinking shares his observations of the Orchid Bee (euglossine bees) from his time in the tropical forests of Costa Rica and probes the emotional relationship we have with them.
One the most sustainable and rewarding things you can do is grow your food, and if you’re aiming to plant your best garden yet, don’t miss this interview with Vivian Berry, Cultivator and Steward of Berry Farmz.
Architects play a vital role in energy conservation and in combating climate change. Some have felt a deep responsibility to our environment their whole lives and have been highly influential in the growth of sustainable building.
Samuel Morse is well known as the inventor of the telegraph and Morse code but did you know he was also an important artist, and landscaper and garden designer?
Many weeds are beautiful plants with valuable nutritional and medicinal benefits. They have characteristics that enhance their survival, and they also hold genetic characteristics that are helping us make swifter adaptions to prevail against climate change.
By Gayil Nalls, Liz Macklin, and Karen Bauer March 1, 2023
In part one of a series that will run from March to October, we will inspire you with a lesson, a process of seeing and practical drawing instructions. Benefit from insights from John Ruskin (1819-1900) one of the best art practitioners and teachers who thought it was the artists job to observe the reality of nature.
Despite awareness efforts, bees are still stressed and dying from pesticides and habitat loss, making them more susceptible to parasites, diseases and viruses.
This photographic essay captures iconic living floral scenes that still evoke the original sources of inspiration for the artist’s famous impressionist paintings.
As part of a sustainable, greener, plant-filled lifestyle, we need to join others in cutting our meat consumption so that we cut greenhouse emissions and decrease climate change. To excite us to eat more plants, which also has wonderful beneficial effects for our own health, we need to prepare more satisfying meatless meals. To help us achieve this, we are inviting some spectacular people from the culinary community to contribute easy recipes that stimulate the senses. To launch this effort, award-winning food writer, Mark Bittman, has contributed a recipe so flavorful and aromatic that you could even skip the pumpkin pie!
The artist reflects on the influence of generational family living, and connects with her roots by sharing a photographic handbook of dried and pressed flower specimens.
In this issue of Plantings, Alina Fresquez Patrick, photographer, poet, documentation and political science researcher, contributes three articles, her own beautiful photo essay created in Cuba exploring plants and the crossovers of the senses, and the articles by Victoria Barbarito and Annie Stowe Mickum, investigating the beauty, importance and benefits of our friends—plants.
The First International Plant Health Conference brought together conservationists from all over the world to discuss scientific, technical, and regulatory issues related to the health of plants.
Copal is a clean and piney scented resin, that is often referred to as Mexican frankincense. Learn how this aroma nurtures the relationship between the living and the dead.
Read about how herbs are used in the recovery from vaginal birth, to support lactation, regulate hormones, and offer emotional comfort during the unpredictability of the postpartum experience.
Farmer Yon, a pillar of Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy community and a renowned chef and grower, brings together food, plants, and music to nourish her community and herself.
The novelist discusses building sustainable lifestyles in urban spaces like Prague, with the founder of Pastvina, the largest community garden in the Czech Republic.
Following the scents of jasmine tea, juicy rambutans, and herbal medicine shops, the photographer depicts her journey finding home in Chinatown through smell.
From planting native plants on the land surrounding crop fields, to growing perennial crops, learn how farmer-led solutions are helping address climate change.
Right now, forests play a crucial role in mitigating climate change by absorbing greenhouse gases, but will forest sequestration rates stay the same as the effects of climate change increase?
Through the narrative voice of an analog photographer, summer scenes carry on under the blanket of heat that is scorching the American South and the Caribbean.
Sadhguru is turning the world’s attention to our soil, inspiring 4 billion people to support policy changes safeguarding, nurturing, and sustaining soil.
This professor of plant-soil processes at the University of Sheffield says this ancient kingdom has an electrical language all of its own, transmitting information across thin filaments of a mycelium web linking fungal colonies.
Plants may appear tranquil but they are under almost constant bombardment from pests. In the fight against insects, plants have evolved an arsenal of ingenious invisible chemical defenses.
Plants sense their environment. Not only do they perceive scent, light, touch, wind, and gravity, they are able to respond to sound through the vibrations of music and the human voice.
By By Anna-Lisa Paul and Robert Ferl April 1, 2022
Learn about research on the development of plants in zero gravity, a pursuit which could teach us more about how plant life will adapt to environmental changes in a future of planetary exploration.
Japan has a deep love of calming, ancient, and serene moss environments. Much like cherry blossom viewing, a movement for moss viewing parties and moss-themed everything has taken off in the country.
E.O. Wilson spent the last years of his life bringing attention to the mass extinctions in progress around the world and calling for action to save as much biodiversity as possible.
As we try to meet our energy needs and move to renewables, it’s important to understand the environmental, political, and economic thinking process behind regulatory changes.
In this issue of Plantings, global culture writer and member of WS/C Board of Advisors, Braden Bjella, currently based in Tbilisi, Georgia, shines in his role as our inaugural Guest Editor. This February, Braden takes us to regions across Eastern Europe and Central Asia with an article collection of interviews, stories, and images, bringing knowledge and awareness of our world and its beauty. He introduces us to environmental thinkers, innovators, and trailblazers from Romania, Albania, Germany, Georgia, Russia, and Kyrgyzstan, who are taking actions to protect their part of the world. Each interview illuminates efforts at the forefront of progress during these challenging times, creating hope for us all.
Romania has an incredible breadth of wildlife — old growth forests, plenty of animals not seen outside Romania, and more. In his photography and new film Wild Romania, Dan Dinu shows that beauty to the world.
Frances Braden of the collective COVEN Berlin tells us that the idea that cities are separate from nature is a construct that is not real, as she explores the beauty of bogs, using both their power and their destruction as a metaphor for the Internet, life, and more.
The Russian label 99Recycle turns the nation’s garbage into trendy bags and outfits. Its environmentally conscious entrepreneur, CEO, and co-founder, Anton Rykachevsky details the company’s history, the problems they face, and their plans for the future.
Olsi Nika inspires us with Albania’s goal of saving the Vjosë, the second largest river in Albania. His resilience and fight for nature encourages us all to persevere.
Kyrgyz artist and curator Bermet Borubaeva, who helped launch a trash festival detailing the problem of garbage in Kyrgyzstan, talks about her work and what people in the West should know about the problems of the East.
The Emeritus Professor of Geological Sciences and Paleobotany, Indiana University of the Montsechia, explores the fossil record of a plant which lived 130 million years ago.
Male orchid bees are perfume makers. They collect scents from floral and fetid objects to compose their perfume which they then store in special organs on the back of their hind legs. A practitioner of BioArt has preserved a form of this fragrance using the science of attraction.
The German scientist, who discovered olfactory receptors throughout the human body, tells us why traditions of aromatic plants use for ‘magical’ healing really work.
American Indian Medicine Wheel Gardens are an ancient and powerful way of creating a sacred planting space and working with natural energies for healing and renewal.
Through photography and poetry, an artist and visual researcher explores the relationship between people, plants and magic, as told through the work and practice of aTexas-based witch, occult herbalist and microbiologist.
As global commerce grows, the movement of goods is occurring at ever-faster rates. And with increased global trade comes the spread of non-native species. This includes invasive insects that are making life difficult for domestic bees.
Sixty-six million years ago, an asteroid struck the Earth. The world was plunged into darkness, killing the dinosaurs and over 90% of all species alive. Today, every living thing descends from the handful of surviving species. But not all survivors thrived.
Liz Macklin explores the historic garden at Dumbarton Oaks with Director of Garden and Grounds, Jonathan Kavalier, and discuss the genius of Beatrix Farrand’s design and ways to meet challenges in today’s gardens.
A large majority of people, even in the United States, recognize climate change as real, but the percent who are actively changing their lifestyle, aggressively fighting to prevent climate change is much smaller. Why?
This 95-acre woods in south-central Pennsylvania’s ridge-and-valley country is a hunting and hiking refuge co-owned by eight families. As much as he loves it, Leiby knows it could be even better.
Learning is rapid and reliable when rewards immediately follow the action and slow and even non-existent when rewards are substantially delayed in time.
By Gayil Nalls and the WS/C Advisory Board • July 1, 2021
I asked WS/C’s knowledgeable Board of Advisors who have diverse expertise and perspectives to name one thing they think we all can do to make a difference. This is what they said.
One of the most widely dispersed wild plants in Andorra, the highly fragrant Grandalla, Narcissus poeticus, blooms year after year, April through June with their face following the sun as their powerful aroma scents mountains and meadows of the Pyrenean region. The native flower has a yellow corona with a red hued rim, surrounded by a ring of white petals. A single flower sits on a leafless hollow stem that grow 30.48-35.56 centimeters (12-14 inches) tall and are surrounded by long green leaves. It is known as the narcissus of ancient times and it is the country’s national flower. Grandella is a very important plant in maintaining the country’s biodiversity by signaling pollinators insects, especially bees.
Climate Change / Conservation Status
Tourism is one of the Andorra’s primary sources of income, and millions visit each year for what has traditionally been a long ski season. There has been a reduction in glacier mass and a change in the quantity and frequency of snowfall caused by an increase in temperatures due to climate change. It is a situation that affects all levels of biodiversity of the mountain ecosystem. The area has become very vulnerable, and there does not seem to be a way to compensate for the changes, which will have both short- and long-term financial impact. The conditions have been exacerbated by coal burning power plants in Andorra. Locations below 1,524 meters (5,000 feet) are currently the most affected, reducing air quality and concentrating greenhouse gases in the country’s valleys.,
Andorra is located in the Pyrenees mountains and is extremely vulnerable to climate change. The rapid melting of the glaciers and changes in the frequency of snowfall is a challenge to the mountain ecosystem and its biodiversity. Yet, the country has minimal climate change initiatives and is not a part of the Kyoto Protocol.
However, Narcissus poeticus was one of the fist species of the Narcissus genus to be cultivated and because of its adaptability, it is one of the most popular ornamental plants worldwide. Narcissus poeticus is also highly cultivated outside Andorra for many reasons. The aromatic extracted from the flower is used in perfumery and aromatherapy and its compounds, especially its alkaloids, are used the pharmaceutical industry. The alkaloid galantamine is cognition enhancing, and is used in medication to treat dementia.
Even though the plant is cultivated and hybridized, in the wild Narcissus poeticus is under threat of habitat destruction, climate change and the unsustainable collecting of wild bulbs. Already, the ICUN considers 5 species of Narcissus to be endangered, and others to be extinct in the wild.
It is the fundamental responsibility of every person on the planet to be a conservationist. Each of us must use our unique and natural abilities to protect the natural world. Then together, our collective knowledge and actions can scale and advance the field of biodiversity conservation.
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