Wildflower season is growing longer in the mountains
(Photo: Courtesy of Martha Inouye) While that may be good for viewing, it has broader implications for the birds and the bees that dine on flower nectar and are pollinators for the flowers.
“There are now flowers that are blooming before the pollinators are around so the flowers aren’t getting pollinated,” he says.
CPR News/Anna Hanel Inouye has been doing reasearch at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory near Crested Butte for some 40 years. He's monitored patches of wildflowers there for decades. He says that although there’s a lot of variation from year to year, the trend is that growing season getting longer and the blooming periods are changing.
