Global Warming Said May Alter Kan. Area
Pastor Dale Morgan
May 18, 6:04 PM EDT
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Global Warming Said May Alter Kan. Area*
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Imagine the Sunflower State without its
sunflowers. That's one of the dire predictions contained in a new report
on global warming released by the National Wildlife Federation, which
says the Kansas state flower could move north to other states in a few
decades.
Increasingly warm temperatures also could mean the end of the state
tree, the eastern cottonwood, according to "The Gardener's Guide to
Global Warming."
"Everything being equal, these plants won't thrive and will shift
north," said Patty Glick, the report's author and senior global warming
specialist for the National Wildlife Federation.
While conditions could change, Glick and other say projected increasing
temperatures also could wipe out cool-weather grasses, such as Kentucky
bluegrass, and many fescues that cover lawns in the region.
Some experts think global warming will cause temperatures in Kansas to
rise an average of 5 to 12 degrees in the next several decades.
The projection that the sunflower could fade from Kansas' landscape
surprised some experts and scientists.
"This is a plant that has survived for eons," said Dennis Patton, a
horticulturist with the Johnson County Kansas State University Research
and Extension office. "It is hard to believe in this short period of
time that the plant would be non-existent here. Same with the cottonwood.
"I guess what I come back to, it is a good wake-up call."
John Blair, a Kansas State University professor and research scientist
at the Konza Prairie research station north of Manhattan, has been
conducting experiments for nine years on the effect of altered rain
patterns on plants.
Blair said even if total rainfall doesn't change, computer models show
the rain will come less often and will fall in strong downpours when it
does come.
He is finding that plants with root systems able to reach water deeper
in the earth have a better chance of survival. For plants in the wild,
that means many perennials have a better chance than annuals such as the
sunflower because of their more developed root systems.
What would the lack of a sunflower mean for Kansas, which has Mount
Sunflower and hundreds of businesses, clubs and associations with
sunflower in their titles?
"Maybe in 100 years the Texas bluebonnet will be the Kansas state
flower," Patton said.
The Wildlife Federation report said the Missouri state tree and flower -
the flowering dogwood and the white hawthorn blossom - are not endangered.