Plum blossoms are flowering unevenly in Taitung County's Luanshan (鸞山) area because of last year's typhoon damage combined with the area's hilly terrain, an agricultural association official said yesterday.
Plum trees that were not hit by strong winds have bloomed normally, while affected trees are flowering later because their newly grown trunks remain tender, said Ho Chieh-chen (何介臣), a standing committee member of the Taitung Organic Agriculture Development Association.
Plum blossoms usually flower about one month before the Lunar New Year and this year's season is expected to wind down by early next month, said Ho, who is also a plum farmer.
Photo: CNA
Some plum trees damaged by a typhoon in August last year did not regrow their leaves until September or October, said Lu Po-sung (盧柏松), deputy director of the Ministry of Agriculture's Taitung District Agricultural Research and Extension Station.
Those leaves have not fully fallen, which has interfered with bud development and flowering, and has meant that only undamaged trees are blooming on schedule, Lu said.
Flowering has reached about 40 to 50 percent in areas above 500m in elevation, while in areas below that level the figure is only about 10 to 20 percent, Lu said.
Typhoon damage has also caused a disrupted flowering cycle, with some trees bearing blooming and non-blooming branches at the same time, he said.
Poor bud differentiation has shortened the flowering period from seven to eight days to about three to four days, after which petals begin to fall, Lu said.
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