research article phenology of some phanerogams (trees and...
TRANSCRIPT
Hindawi Publishing CorporationJournal of BotanyVolume 2013 Article ID 712405 10 pageshttpdxdoiorg1011552013712405
Research ArticlePhenology of Some Phanerogams (Trees and Shrubs) ofNorthwestern Punjab India
Gurveen Kaur Bhupinder Pal Singh and Avinash Kaur Nagpal
Department of Botanical and Environmental Sciences Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar 143005 India
Correspondence should be addressed to Gurveen Kaur bajwagurveengmailcom andAvinash Kaur Nagpal avnagpaldobesgnduacin
Received 23 January 2013 Revised 26 April 2013 Accepted 19 May 2013
Academic Editor William K Smith
Copyright copy 2013 Gurveen Kaur et al This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution Licensewhich permits unrestricted use distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited
Plants perform various vegetative and reproductive functions throughout the year in order to persist in their habitats The studyof these events including their timing and how the environment influences the timing of these events is known as phenology Thisstudy of the timing of seasonal biological activities of plants is very important to know about plantrsquos survival and its reproductivesuccess The variation in the phenological activities is due to change in different abiotic conditions This paper deals with the studyof phenological activities like bud formation flowering time fruiting time and seed formation for some leguminous plants ofAmritsar Punjab (a state in the northwest of India) for three consecutive years from 2009 till 2011
1 Introduction
The timing of various phenological activities such as ger-mination bud break flowering fruit dehiscence and leafdrop is important for survival and reproductive successof many plant species Abiotic environmental conditionssuch as rain change in temperature presenceabsence ofpollinators competitors and herbivores have been shownto play a significant role in timing of various phenologicalevents [1ndash6] Natural selection has also been considered toplay some role in determining the phenological patterns ofplant species [7] Phenological studies are also importantin understanding species interrelations and their interactionwith the environment Variations in phenophases amongindividuals of the same species or different species have beenlinked to environmental perturbations [8]
Considerable amount of phenological data is availableon different plant species from different parts of the worldincluding tropical savanna and semideciduous forest ofVenezuelan Ilanos (South America) [9] dry tropical forestin Ghana [10] NE Spain [11ndash13] Panama [14] Mexico [15]tropical rain forest in Malaya [16] semiarid grassland in theRock mountain USA [17] and tibetan plateau [18]
A number of studies on phenology of different plantspecies from different parts of India have also been
undertaken which include those from a subtropical humidforest in North-Eastern India [19 20] Kumaun Himalayanforests [21 22] deciduous forest of Bandipur in peninsularIndia [23] Shervaroys Southern India [24] tropical moistforest ofWesternGhats inKarnataka [25]Hathinala Forest inUttar Pradesh [26] alpine expanse of North-West Himalaya[27] Orissa coast [28] tropicalmontane forests in theNilgiris[8] Kolhapur region (Maharashtra) [29] and Katerniaghatwildlife sanctuary situated in the Himalayan Terai region inUttar Pradesh [30] Northeastern India [31] However nosuch information is available on plants of Punjab plainshence we initiated phenological studies in trees and shrubsof this region of India To begin with we have compiledinformation on fifteen leguminous species from Amritsar
The family leguminosae is a large and economicallyimportant family of flowering plants and has tradition-ally been divided into three subfamilies Papilionoideae(Faboideae) Caesalpinioideae andMimosoideaeThese havebeen recognized as independent families Fabaceae (Papil-ionaceae) Caesalpiniaceae andMimosaceae in several recentsystems of classification
The present paper deals with phenological observationsof fifteen leguminous plants growing at four different sites inAmritsar over a period of three years from 2009 till 2011 asthese sites represent most of the plant diversity of this region
2 Journal of Botany
India
Punjab
Amritsar
∙
∙
∙
∙
RG
MS
International boundaryState boundaryDistrict boundaryState headquarterDistrict headquarter
10 km1 cm
Amritsar
Location of Punjabin India
Figure 1 Amritsar the Northwestern part of India G Guru Nanak Dev University S Sakatri Bagh MMaharaja Ranjit Singh Park R RanjitAvenue
2 Materials and Methods
21 Study Area The Amritsar district is located in north-western part of the Punjab state and lies between 31∘2810158403010158401015840to 32∘0310158401510158401015840 north latitude and 74∘2910158403010158401015840 to 75∘2410158401510158401015840 eastlongitude Total area of the district is 5056 km2 with tropicaldry deciduous type of vegetation [32] Natural vegetation isfragmented and is at present available only in narrow stripsand patterns
Amritsar has a semiarid climate typical of northwesternIndia and experiences four seasons primarily
(i) winter season (December to February) with temper-ature ranges from 4∘C (39∘F) to about 19∘C (66∘F)
(ii) summer season (April to June) where temperaturescan reach 45∘C (113∘F)
(iii) monsoon season (July to September)(iv) postmonsoon season (September to October)
There is a transitional period between winter and summer inMarch and early April (called as spring) as well as a tran-sitional season between postmonsoon season and winter inOctober andNovember (called as autumn)Annual rainfall inAmritsar is about 680millimetres (groundwater informationbooklet Amritsar district Punjab by Central Ground WaterBoard Ministry of Water Resources Government of Indianorth western region Chandigarh)
The whole area of Amritsar was surveyed and fourdifferent sampling sites that is Guru Nanak Dev University(G) Sakatri Bagh (S) Maharaja Ranjit Singh Park (M) andRanjit Avenue (R) were selected for data collection Thesesites were chosen as they represent most of the plant diversityof Amritsar Figure 1 shows the location of four sites on themap of Amritsar The maps were downloaded from Maps ofIndia and Google images and the climatic data of Amritsar
was obtained from the wunderground website (httpwwwwundergroundcom) This weather station (VIAR) islocated at Raja Sansi International Airpot Amritsar at anelevation of 234m Table 1 shows the minimum mean andmaximum temperature values from January to December forthree consecutive years from 2009 to 2011 of Amritsar
Table 2 lists fifteen plant species selected for the presentstudy along with their family sampling site growth formand leaf habit The data for each species was collected froma minimum of two sampling sites mentioned in Table 2 Ateach site one mature and healthy plant from the populationof that species was fixed as reference for the study Theobservations were made on the marked plant and 10ndash15 of itsclosest neighbours (minimum 6 plants if more plants werenot available for a particular plant species at a particularsite) for a period of 3 years starting from January 2009 upto December 2011 This selection regime was based on astudy by Pilar and Gabriel [12] The areas with the plantsunder study were visited daily to record presenceabsenceof different phenological events or phenophases flower budformation (B) flowering (FL) fruit setting (FR) and seed setand dispersal (S) The information for the initial date andthe last date when these various phenophases were observedwas recorded A phenophase was considered to be active inthe population just when it was observed in at least 5 ofthe crown in a minimum of 20 of the studied plants [12]Phenophase calendars for each species were prepared andwere studied for the interpretation of the overall results Forthe whole set of studied species the frequency of occurrenceof different phenophases in each month was calculated
3 Results
The results on percentage of 15 plant species taken all togethershowing timing of different phenophases (Buds Flowers
Journal of Botany 3
Table 1 Monthly minimum mean and maximum temperature in Amritsar for the years 2009 2010 and 2011
2009 2010 2011Min Mean Max Min Mean Max Min Mean Max
Jan 6 12 18 3 8 14 5 10 16Feb 9 16 23 10 16 22 9 14 20Mar 12 20 27 16 23 30 13 20 27Apr 18 26 34 21 30 38 17 25 33May 23 31 39 25 32 40 25 32 40Jun 25 33 41 26 32 39 26 31 37Jul 26 31 36 27 31 34 27 30 34Aug 27 30 35 26 29 33 26 29 32Sep 23 28 33 24 28 32 25 28 32Oct 21 26 32 20 25 31 18 25 32Nov 11 18 24 12 19 27 13 20 27Dec 5 13 21 5 12 20 6 13 21
Table 2 List of plant species studied with their abbreviation family sampling site growth form (T tree S shrub C climber) and leaf habit(E evergreen and D deciduous)
S No Species Abbreviation Family Sampling sitelowast Growth form Leaf habit1 Bauhinia variegata Linn Bva Caesalpiniaceae G S M R T D2 Caesalpinia pulcherrima (Linn) Sw Cpu Caesalpiniaceae G M R S E3 Cassia fistula Linn Cfi Caesalpiniaceae G S M R T D4 Cassia glauca Lam Cgl Caesalpiniaceae G S R S E5 Cassia siamea Lamk Csi Caesalpiniaceae G R T E6 Delonix regia Rafin Dre Caesalpiniaceae G S M T D7 Parkinsonia aculeata Linn Pac Caesalpiniaceae G R T D8 Acacia auriculiformis A Cunn Aau Mimosaceae G M R T E9 Acacia nilotica Delile Ani Mimosaceae G R T E10 Albizia lebbeck Benth Ale Mimosaceae G S T D11 Calliandra tweedii Benth Ctw Mimosaceae G R S E12 Prosopis juliflora DC Pju Mimosaceae G S M T E13 Abrus precatorius Linn Ape Papilionaceae G S R C D14 Buteamonosperma (Lam) Kuntze Bmo Papilionaceae G R T D15 Dalbergia sissoo Roxb Dsi Papilionaceae G S M R T DlowastSampling sites shown in Figure 1
Fruits and Seeds) during the study period are shown inFigure 2 This figure reveals that percentage of plant speciesexhibiting each phenophase that is buds flowers fruits andseeds showed almost a similar trend for three consecutiveyears within each phenophase Bud formation showed apeak in the beginning of summer (60) and another smallpeak during late monsoon and was almost evenly distributedthrough the rest of the year for all the three years Similartrend was observed for flowering which also showed a peak(6667) during beginning of summer and another smallpeak (5333) during postmonsoon period for all the threeyears Maximumpercentage of plant species showing fruitingwas observed in the months of March April and May (60)which resulted in maximum seed set in the months of JuneJuly and August during the study period Comparison ofresults on observations of flowering in different plant speciesduring the three consecutive years 2009 2010 and 2011reveals that maximum percentage of plant species (6667)showing floweringwas observed in themonth of April during2011
Figure 3 shows phenological patterns of individual plantspecies studied For each plant species the whole periodof appearance of different phenophases-like bud formationflowering fruiting and seed set has been indicated forthree consecutive years The study reveals high phonologicaldiversity for different phenophases studied among fifteenplant species However for individuals of the same species nodifferences in the appearance of different phenophases wereobserved
During the study period it was observed that somespecies like Bauhinia variegata Linn Caesalpinia pulcher-rima (Linn) Sw Cassia glauca Lam Cassia siamea Lamkand so forth showed conspicuous buds (2ndash4 weeks) beforeflowering but in case ofDalbergia sissoo Roxb bud formationwas observed just few days (less than a week) before promi-nent flowering was recorded Most of the species floweredfrom spring to late summer (eg Parkinsonia aculeata Linnand Acacia auriculiformis A Cunn) Butea monosperma(Lam) Kuntze exhibited flowering during the monsoon andpostmonsoon period only Some of the species that showed
4 Journal of Botany
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Month
20102011
2009
Buds
Plan
t spe
cies
()
(a)
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Flowers
80
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Month
20102011
2009
Plan
t spe
cies
()
(b)
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Month
20102011
2009
Fruits
Plan
t spe
cies
()
(c)
60
50
40
30
20
10
0Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Month
20102011
2009
SeedsPl
ant s
peci
es (
)
(d)
Figure 2 Percentage of plant species under study showing each phenophase buds (a) flowers (b) fruits (c) and seeds (d) during 2009 to2011
flowering during winter months extending to early summerincluded Caesalpinia pulcherrima (Linn) Sw Cassia siameaLamk and Delonix regia Rafin Variation in the floweringtime period was observed for different species ranging from2 months (Abrus precatorius Linn) to 7 months (Cassiaglauca Lam) Similarly the variation in fruiting period wasobserved from 3 months as in the case of Cassia siameaLamk and so forth to have fruiting almost throughout theyear as for Dalbergia sissoo Roxb By the end of summer theseeds of most of the plant species were mature and ready fordispersal There were two time periods in the year when leafshedding was observed that is in summer and in the autumndepending on the type of leaf habit of that plant species
4 Discussion
Our study reveals high phenological diversity for the fourphenological patterns (buds flowers fruits and seeds)among fifteen leguminous plant species growing in Amritsar
under similar environmental conditions for the three consec-utive years that is 2009 2010 and 2011 Changes in plantphenological patterns have been associated with the speciesspecific plant structural architecture availability and transferof nutrients [33] plant growth rates [34] temperature [35]and water [36]
A comparison of observations on flowering time for thethree years under study reveals an advancement of floweringtime by about 2ndash4 weeks in the year 2010 for some specieslike Acacia nilotica Delile Abrus precatorius Linn Bauhiniavariegata Linn Dalbergia sissoo Roxb Delonix regia Rafinand Parkinsonia aculeata Linn as compared to that observedin 2009 (Figure 3) This change in phenological shift can beattributed to increase in temperature in 2010 as compared tothat reported for 2009 (Table 1) The total length of floweringperiod was extended by 2ndash4 weeks in 2010-11 as comparedto 2009 for species like Bauhinia variegata Linn Caesalpiniapulcherrima (Linn) Sw Cassia fistula Linn Parkinsoniaaculeata Linn Acacia nilotica Delile Calliandra tweediiBenth and Prosopis juliflora DC
Journal of Botany 5
Nameof theplant
Nameof theplant
March April May June
Months
July
March April May June
Months
July
Caes
alpi
nia
pulch
errim
a (L
inn
) Sw
(3)
Caes
alpi
niac
eae
Caes
alpi
niac
eae
Caes
alpi
niac
eae
Caes
alpi
niac
eae
Seed
Seed
Seed
FRFL
Buds
Seed
FRFR
FRFL
FLFL
Buds
Buds
Buds
PP Year
PP Year
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
10
10
11Cassi
a gla
uca
Cassi
a fis
tula
Lin
n (4
) Ba
uhin
ia va
riega
ta L
inn
(4)
January February August September October November December
Lam
(3)
January February August September October November December
11
Figure 3 Continued
6 Journal of Botany
March April May June
Months
JulySe
edFR
FLBu
dsSe
edSe
edFR
FLBu
dsFR
FLBu
dsFR
FLBu
ds
Nameof theplant
Nameof theplant
PPPP
Year
Year
Cassi
a sia
mea
Delo
nix
regi
a Ra
fin (
3)Ca
esal
pini
acea
eCa
esal
pini
acea
eCa
esal
pini
acea
e
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
09
March April May June
Months
July
Mim
osac
eae
Park
insp
nia
acul
eata
Lin
n (2
) L
amk
(2)
Acac
ia a
uricu
lifor
mis
A C
unn
(3)
January February August September October November December
January February August September October November December
Seed
091011
Figure 3 Continued
Journal of Botany 7
March April May June
Months
July
Seed
Seed
FRFL
Buds
Seed
FRFL
Buds
FRFL
Buds
FRFL
Buds
Nameof theplant
PP Year
Nameof theplant
PP Year
1011
1011
1011
1011
09
09
09
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1009
March April May June
Months
July
January February August September October November December
August September October November DecemberJanuary February
11
Albi
zia
lebbe
ck B
enth
(2)
Mim
osac
eae
Acac
ia n
ilotic
a D
elile
(2)
Mim
osac
eae
Pros
opis
julifl
ora
DC
(3)
Mim
osac
eae
Calli
andr
a tw
eedi
i Be
nth
(2)
Mim
osac
eae
1011
09
Seed
Figure 3 Continued
8 Journal of Botany
March April May June
Months
July
March April May June
Months
July
Nameof theplant
PP Year
Nameof theplant
PP Year
Seed
Seed
FRFR
FLFL
Buds
Seed
FRFL
Buds
Buds
1011
1011
1011
1011
09
09
09
09
1011
09
1011
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
09
January
January
February
February
August
August
September October November December
September October November December
Abru
s pre
cato
rius
Papi
liona
ceae
Bute
a m
onos
perm
a (L
am)
Kunt
ze (2
)Pa
pilio
nace
aePa
pilio
nace
ae
Lin
n (3
)D
albe
rgia
sisso
o Ro
xb (
4)
Figure 3 Phenological diagrams of fifteen plant species belonging to families caesalpiniaceae mimosaceae and papilionaceae The darkcolored bars indicate the whole period of appearance of different phenophases including buds bud formation FL flowering FR fruiting andseed seed formation for three consecutive years Numbers in parenthesis beside the species names are the number of considered populations(PP phenophase)
Journal of Botany 9
Some other studies have also demonstrated an associationof an advancement in flowering date with climate changeOne study has reported an increase in the mean terrestrialsurface temperature by more than 02∘C per decade eversince 1970 [37] A number of other studies have shown anadvancement of phenological events as a result of increase intemperature [38ndash41] With the increase in the temperaturemost of the species showed earlier flowering time period [39]and even increase in their time period of flowering (egBauhinia variegate Linn Prosopis juliflora DC) Similarlyearly flowering was observed for 24 out of the 32 plant speciesstudied in a semiarid grassland by Lesica and Kittelson [17]
The period of maximum activity of bud formation in themonths of spring and the flowering period (started in springand extended to summer and the beginning of autumn) coin-cided with the observations of Pilar and Gabriel [12] Flowerdevelopment dates have been shown to be synchronousamong individuals of the same plant species studied whichseems to be important in increasing the chances of outcrosspollinations as suggested by Ollerton and Lack [42]
These changes in the phenological patterns can resultin adverse effects on insect pollinators as well as herbivores(if the plant species is present in barren or wild areas) thatdepend on those species for food [43 44] The changes inphenological patterns of plantrsquos response to different temper-ature and rainfall availability have been shown to be speciesspecific [45 46] Hence changes in vegetation communityspecies composition might also be responsible for changesin the phenology of the studied plants The present studyreveals that different plants of the same family (Leguminosae)flower at different times during the same year growing at samelocation under similar environmental conditions which canbe attributed to species-specific plant structural architecture
5 Conclusion
The present study reveals high phenological diversity forfour different phenophases among fifteen leguminous plantspecies growing in Amritsar with tropical dry deciduous typeof vegetation This study would be of great help in knowingthe timing of different phenophases of the studied plantswhich can be of interest to people of this region (or wheresimilar climatic conditions prevail) who wish to plan theirgardens and wish to have flowers in their gardens round theyear So they can select plants which flower during differentparts of the year This type of study can provide importantinsights into the biology of the plants concerned and revealphenological pattern of surveyed species This study wouldalso be of great help for comparison over long durationof time For example to see if there is any change in thephenological patterns of the same plant species in next 10 orso years Such comparative study could not be possible at thistime since no relevant literature is available for this region
Acknowledgment
The authors thank Department of Science and Technol-ogy Government of India for INSPIRE Fellowship to MsGurveen Kaur
References
[1] E R Heithaus ldquoThe role of plant-pollinator interactions indetermining community structurerdquo Annals of the MissouriBotanical Garden vol 61 pp 675ndash691 1974
[2] G W Frankie ldquoTropical forest phenology and pollinator plantcoevolutionrdquo inCoevolution of Animals and Plants L E Gilbertand P H Raven Eds pp 192ndash209 University of Texas PressAustin Tex USA 1975
[3] H R Pulliam andM R Brand ldquoThe production and utilizationof seeds in plains grassland of southeastern Arizonardquo Ecologyvol 56 pp 1158ndash1166 1975
[4] P A Opler G W Frankie and H G Baker ldquoRainfall as afactor in the release timing and synchronization of anthesis bytropical trees and shrubsrdquo Journal of Biogeography vol 3 pp231ndash236 1976
[5] J N Thompson and M F Willson ldquoEvolution of temperaturefruitbird interactions phenological strategiesrdquo Evolution vol33 pp 973ndash982 1979
[6] E W Stiles ldquoPatterns of fruit presentation and seed dispersal inbird disseminatedwoodyplants in the eastern deciduous forestrdquoThe American Naturalist vol 116 pp 670ndash688 1980
[7] G F Estabrook J AWinsor A G Stephenson andH F HoweldquoWhen are two phenological patterns differentrdquo BotanicalGazette vol 143 no 3 pp 374ndash378 1982
[8] H S Suresh and R Sukumar ldquoVegetative phenology of tropicalmontane forests in the Nilgiris South Indiardquo Journal of theNational Science Foundation of Sri Lanka vol 39 no 4 pp 333ndash343 2011
[9] M Monasterio and G Sarmiento ldquoPhenological strategies ofplant species in the tropical savanna and the semideciduousforest of the Venezuelan Ilanosrdquo Journal of Biogeography vol3 pp 352ndash356 1976
[10] D Lieberman ldquoSeasonality and phenology in a dry tropicalforest in Ghanardquo Journal of Ecology vol 70 no 3 pp 791ndash8061982
[11] R Milla P Castro-Dıez and G Montserrat-Martı ldquoPhenologyof Mediterranean woody plants from NE Spain synchronyseasonality and relationships among phenophasesrdquo Flora vol205 no 3 pp 190ndash199 2010
[12] C-D Pilar and M-M Gabriel ldquoPhenological pattern of fifteenMediterranean phanaerophytes fromQuercus ilex communitiesof NE-Spainrdquo Plant Ecology vol 139 no 1 pp 103ndash112 1998
[13] G Montserrat-Martı and C Perez-Rontome ldquoFruit growthdynamics and their effects on the phenological pattern of nativePistacia populations in NE Spainrdquo Flora vol 197 no 3 pp 161ndash174 2002
[14] D De Steven D M Windsor and F E Putz ldquoVegetative andreproductive phonologies of a palm assemblage in PanamardquoBiotropica vol 19 pp 342ndash356 1987
[15] S H Bullock and J A Solis-Magallanes ldquoPhenology of canopytrees of a tropical deciduous forest in Mexicordquo Biotropica vol22 pp 22ndash35 1990
[16] L Medway ldquoPhenology of a tropical rain forest in MalayardquoBiological Journal of the Linnean Society vol 4 no 2 pp 117ndash146 1972
[17] P Lesica and PM Kittelson ldquoPrecipitation and temperature areassociated with advanced flowering phenology in a semi-aridgrasslandrdquo Journal of Arid Environments vol 74 pp 1013ndash10172010
10 Journal of Botany
[18] M Shen Y Tang J Chen X Zhu and Y Zheng ldquoInfluencesof temperature and precipitation before the growing seasonon spring phenology in grasslands of the central and easternQinghai-Tibetan Plateaurdquo Agricultural and Forest Meteorologyvol 151 no 12 pp 1711ndash1722 2011
[19] R P Shukla and P S Ramakrishnan ldquoPhenology of trees in asub-tropical humid forest in north-eastern IndiardquoVegetatio vol49 no 2 pp 103ndash109 1982
[20] R P Shukla and P S Ramakrishnan ldquoLeaf dynamics of tropicaltrees related to successional statusrdquoNew Phytologist vol 97 no4 pp 697ndash706 1984
[21] P K Ralhan R K Khanna S P Singh and J S Singh ldquoPheno-logical characteristics of the tree layer of Kumaun Himalayanforestsrdquo Vegetatio vol 60 no 2 pp 91ndash101 1985
[22] Y P S Pangtey R S Rawal N S Bankoti and S S SamantldquoPhenology of high-altitude plants of Kumaun in CentralHimalaya Indiardquo International Journal of Biometeorology vol34 no 2 pp 122ndash127 1990
[23] S N Prasad and M Hegde ldquoPhenology and seasonality in thetropical deciduous forest of Bandipur South IndiardquoProceedingsPlant Sciences vol 96 no 2 pp 121ndash133 1986
[24] N Sivaraj and K V Krishnamurthy ldquoFlowering phenology inthe vegetation of Shervaroys South IndiardquoVegetatio vol 79 no1-2 pp 85ndash88 1988
[25] D M Bhat and K S Murali ldquoPhenology of understorey speciesof tropical moist forest of Western Ghats region of UttaraKannada district in South Indiardquo Current Science vol 81 no7 pp 799ndash805 2001
[26] K P Singh and C P Kushwaha ldquoDiversity of flowering andfruiting phenology of trees in a tropical deciduous forest inIndiardquo Annals of Botany vol 97 no 2 pp 265ndash276 2006
[27] R K Vashisthe N Rawat A K Chaturvedi B P Nautiyal PPrasad and M C Nautiyal ldquoAn exploration on the phenologyof different growth forms of an alpine expanse of north-westHimalaya Indiardquo New York Science Journal vol 2 pp 29ndash422009
[28] V P Upadhyay and P K Mishra ldquoPhenology of mangroves treespecies on Orissa coast Indiardquo Tropical Ecology vol 51 no 2pp 289ndash295 2010
[29] A RKasarkar andDKKulkarni ldquoPhenological studies of fam-ily zingiberaceae with special reference to Alpinia and Zingiberfrom Kolhapur region(MS) Indiardquo Bioscience Discovery vol 2pp 322ndash327 2011
[30] O Bajpai A Kumar A K Mishra N Sahu S K Behera and LB Chaudhary ldquoPhenological study of two dominant tree speciesin tropical moist deciduous forest from the Northern IndiardquoInternational Journal of Botany vol 8 pp 66ndash72 2012
[31] A Lokho and Y Kumar ldquoReproductive phenology and mor-phology analysis of IndianDendrobium Sw (Orchidaceae) fromthe northeast regionrdquo International Journal of Scientific andResearch Publications vol 2 pp 1ndash14 2012
[32] S H G Champion and S K SethA Revised Survey of the ForestTypes of India The manager of Publications Delhi India 1968
[33] R E Sosebee andH HWiebe ldquoEffect of phenological develop-ment on radiophosphorus translocation from leaves in crestedwheatgrassrdquo Oecologia vol 13 no 2 pp 103ndash112 1973
[34] F G Taylor Jr Phenodynamics of Production in a MesicDeciduous Forest USIBP Eastern Deciduous Forest Biome OakRidges National Laboratory Oak Ridge Tenn USA 1972
[35] M Y Nuttonson Wheat-Climate Relationships and the Useof Phenology in Ascertaining the Thermal and Photo-Thermal
Requirements of Wheat Based on Data of North America andSomeThermally Analogous Areas of North America in the SovietUnion and in Finland American Institute for Crop EcologyWashington DC USA 1955
[36] J P Blaisdell ldquoSeasonal development and yield of nativeplants on the upper Snake River plains and their relation tocertain climatic factorsrdquoUSDepartment of Agriculture TechnicalBulletin vol 1190 pp 1ndash68 1958
[37] J Hansen M Sato R Ruedy K Lo D W Lea and MMedina-Elizade ldquoGlobal temperature changerdquo Proceedings ofthe National Academy of Sciences of the United States of Americavol 103 no 39 pp 14288ndash14293 2006
[38] Y Julien and J A Sobrino ldquoGlobal land surface phenologytrends from GIMMS databaserdquo International Journal of RemoteSensing vol 30 no 13 pp 3495ndash3513 2009
[39] A Menzel T H Sparks N Estrella et al ldquoEuropean phenolog-ical response to climate change matches the warming patternrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 12 no 10 pp 1969ndash1976 2006
[40] C Parmesan and G Yohe ldquoA globally coherent fingerprint ofclimate change impacts across natural systemsrdquoNature vol 421no 6918 pp 37ndash42 2003
[41] S Piao J Fang L Zhou P Ciais and B Zhu ldquoVariations insatellite-derived phenology in Chinarsquos temperate vegetationrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 12 no 4 pp 672ndash685 2006
[42] J Ollerton and A J Lack ldquoFlowering phenology an exampleof relaxation of natural selectionrdquo Trends in Ecology andEvolution vol 7 no 8 pp 274ndash276 1992
[43] F Saavedra DW Inouye M V Price and J Harte ldquoChanges inflowering and abundance of Delphinium nuttallianum (Ranun-culaceae) in response to a subalpine climate warming experi-mentrdquo Global Change Biology vol 9 no 6 pp 885ndash894 2003
[44] N C Stenseth and AMysterud ldquoClimate changing phenologyand other life history traits nonlinearity and match-mismatchto the environmentrdquo Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of theUnited States of America vol 99 no 21 pp 13379ndash13381 2002
[45] I Ibanez R B Primack A J Miller-Rushing et al ldquoForecastingphenology under globalwarmingrdquoPhilosophical Transactions ofthe Royal Society B vol 365 no 1555 pp 3247ndash3260 2010
[46] C Parmesan ldquoInfluences of species latitudes and methodolo-gies on estimates of phenological response to global warmingrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 13 no 9 pp 1860ndash1872 2007
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International Journal of
Microbiology
2 Journal of Botany
India
Punjab
Amritsar
∙
∙
∙
∙
RG
MS
International boundaryState boundaryDistrict boundaryState headquarterDistrict headquarter
10 km1 cm
Amritsar
Location of Punjabin India
Figure 1 Amritsar the Northwestern part of India G Guru Nanak Dev University S Sakatri Bagh MMaharaja Ranjit Singh Park R RanjitAvenue
2 Materials and Methods
21 Study Area The Amritsar district is located in north-western part of the Punjab state and lies between 31∘2810158403010158401015840to 32∘0310158401510158401015840 north latitude and 74∘2910158403010158401015840 to 75∘2410158401510158401015840 eastlongitude Total area of the district is 5056 km2 with tropicaldry deciduous type of vegetation [32] Natural vegetation isfragmented and is at present available only in narrow stripsand patterns
Amritsar has a semiarid climate typical of northwesternIndia and experiences four seasons primarily
(i) winter season (December to February) with temper-ature ranges from 4∘C (39∘F) to about 19∘C (66∘F)
(ii) summer season (April to June) where temperaturescan reach 45∘C (113∘F)
(iii) monsoon season (July to September)(iv) postmonsoon season (September to October)
There is a transitional period between winter and summer inMarch and early April (called as spring) as well as a tran-sitional season between postmonsoon season and winter inOctober andNovember (called as autumn)Annual rainfall inAmritsar is about 680millimetres (groundwater informationbooklet Amritsar district Punjab by Central Ground WaterBoard Ministry of Water Resources Government of Indianorth western region Chandigarh)
The whole area of Amritsar was surveyed and fourdifferent sampling sites that is Guru Nanak Dev University(G) Sakatri Bagh (S) Maharaja Ranjit Singh Park (M) andRanjit Avenue (R) were selected for data collection Thesesites were chosen as they represent most of the plant diversityof Amritsar Figure 1 shows the location of four sites on themap of Amritsar The maps were downloaded from Maps ofIndia and Google images and the climatic data of Amritsar
was obtained from the wunderground website (httpwwwwundergroundcom) This weather station (VIAR) islocated at Raja Sansi International Airpot Amritsar at anelevation of 234m Table 1 shows the minimum mean andmaximum temperature values from January to December forthree consecutive years from 2009 to 2011 of Amritsar
Table 2 lists fifteen plant species selected for the presentstudy along with their family sampling site growth formand leaf habit The data for each species was collected froma minimum of two sampling sites mentioned in Table 2 Ateach site one mature and healthy plant from the populationof that species was fixed as reference for the study Theobservations were made on the marked plant and 10ndash15 of itsclosest neighbours (minimum 6 plants if more plants werenot available for a particular plant species at a particularsite) for a period of 3 years starting from January 2009 upto December 2011 This selection regime was based on astudy by Pilar and Gabriel [12] The areas with the plantsunder study were visited daily to record presenceabsenceof different phenological events or phenophases flower budformation (B) flowering (FL) fruit setting (FR) and seed setand dispersal (S) The information for the initial date andthe last date when these various phenophases were observedwas recorded A phenophase was considered to be active inthe population just when it was observed in at least 5 ofthe crown in a minimum of 20 of the studied plants [12]Phenophase calendars for each species were prepared andwere studied for the interpretation of the overall results Forthe whole set of studied species the frequency of occurrenceof different phenophases in each month was calculated
3 Results
The results on percentage of 15 plant species taken all togethershowing timing of different phenophases (Buds Flowers
Journal of Botany 3
Table 1 Monthly minimum mean and maximum temperature in Amritsar for the years 2009 2010 and 2011
2009 2010 2011Min Mean Max Min Mean Max Min Mean Max
Jan 6 12 18 3 8 14 5 10 16Feb 9 16 23 10 16 22 9 14 20Mar 12 20 27 16 23 30 13 20 27Apr 18 26 34 21 30 38 17 25 33May 23 31 39 25 32 40 25 32 40Jun 25 33 41 26 32 39 26 31 37Jul 26 31 36 27 31 34 27 30 34Aug 27 30 35 26 29 33 26 29 32Sep 23 28 33 24 28 32 25 28 32Oct 21 26 32 20 25 31 18 25 32Nov 11 18 24 12 19 27 13 20 27Dec 5 13 21 5 12 20 6 13 21
Table 2 List of plant species studied with their abbreviation family sampling site growth form (T tree S shrub C climber) and leaf habit(E evergreen and D deciduous)
S No Species Abbreviation Family Sampling sitelowast Growth form Leaf habit1 Bauhinia variegata Linn Bva Caesalpiniaceae G S M R T D2 Caesalpinia pulcherrima (Linn) Sw Cpu Caesalpiniaceae G M R S E3 Cassia fistula Linn Cfi Caesalpiniaceae G S M R T D4 Cassia glauca Lam Cgl Caesalpiniaceae G S R S E5 Cassia siamea Lamk Csi Caesalpiniaceae G R T E6 Delonix regia Rafin Dre Caesalpiniaceae G S M T D7 Parkinsonia aculeata Linn Pac Caesalpiniaceae G R T D8 Acacia auriculiformis A Cunn Aau Mimosaceae G M R T E9 Acacia nilotica Delile Ani Mimosaceae G R T E10 Albizia lebbeck Benth Ale Mimosaceae G S T D11 Calliandra tweedii Benth Ctw Mimosaceae G R S E12 Prosopis juliflora DC Pju Mimosaceae G S M T E13 Abrus precatorius Linn Ape Papilionaceae G S R C D14 Buteamonosperma (Lam) Kuntze Bmo Papilionaceae G R T D15 Dalbergia sissoo Roxb Dsi Papilionaceae G S M R T DlowastSampling sites shown in Figure 1
Fruits and Seeds) during the study period are shown inFigure 2 This figure reveals that percentage of plant speciesexhibiting each phenophase that is buds flowers fruits andseeds showed almost a similar trend for three consecutiveyears within each phenophase Bud formation showed apeak in the beginning of summer (60) and another smallpeak during late monsoon and was almost evenly distributedthrough the rest of the year for all the three years Similartrend was observed for flowering which also showed a peak(6667) during beginning of summer and another smallpeak (5333) during postmonsoon period for all the threeyears Maximumpercentage of plant species showing fruitingwas observed in the months of March April and May (60)which resulted in maximum seed set in the months of JuneJuly and August during the study period Comparison ofresults on observations of flowering in different plant speciesduring the three consecutive years 2009 2010 and 2011reveals that maximum percentage of plant species (6667)showing floweringwas observed in themonth of April during2011
Figure 3 shows phenological patterns of individual plantspecies studied For each plant species the whole periodof appearance of different phenophases-like bud formationflowering fruiting and seed set has been indicated forthree consecutive years The study reveals high phonologicaldiversity for different phenophases studied among fifteenplant species However for individuals of the same species nodifferences in the appearance of different phenophases wereobserved
During the study period it was observed that somespecies like Bauhinia variegata Linn Caesalpinia pulcher-rima (Linn) Sw Cassia glauca Lam Cassia siamea Lamkand so forth showed conspicuous buds (2ndash4 weeks) beforeflowering but in case ofDalbergia sissoo Roxb bud formationwas observed just few days (less than a week) before promi-nent flowering was recorded Most of the species floweredfrom spring to late summer (eg Parkinsonia aculeata Linnand Acacia auriculiformis A Cunn) Butea monosperma(Lam) Kuntze exhibited flowering during the monsoon andpostmonsoon period only Some of the species that showed
4 Journal of Botany
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Month
20102011
2009
Buds
Plan
t spe
cies
()
(a)
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Flowers
80
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Month
20102011
2009
Plan
t spe
cies
()
(b)
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Month
20102011
2009
Fruits
Plan
t spe
cies
()
(c)
60
50
40
30
20
10
0Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Month
20102011
2009
SeedsPl
ant s
peci
es (
)
(d)
Figure 2 Percentage of plant species under study showing each phenophase buds (a) flowers (b) fruits (c) and seeds (d) during 2009 to2011
flowering during winter months extending to early summerincluded Caesalpinia pulcherrima (Linn) Sw Cassia siameaLamk and Delonix regia Rafin Variation in the floweringtime period was observed for different species ranging from2 months (Abrus precatorius Linn) to 7 months (Cassiaglauca Lam) Similarly the variation in fruiting period wasobserved from 3 months as in the case of Cassia siameaLamk and so forth to have fruiting almost throughout theyear as for Dalbergia sissoo Roxb By the end of summer theseeds of most of the plant species were mature and ready fordispersal There were two time periods in the year when leafshedding was observed that is in summer and in the autumndepending on the type of leaf habit of that plant species
4 Discussion
Our study reveals high phenological diversity for the fourphenological patterns (buds flowers fruits and seeds)among fifteen leguminous plant species growing in Amritsar
under similar environmental conditions for the three consec-utive years that is 2009 2010 and 2011 Changes in plantphenological patterns have been associated with the speciesspecific plant structural architecture availability and transferof nutrients [33] plant growth rates [34] temperature [35]and water [36]
A comparison of observations on flowering time for thethree years under study reveals an advancement of floweringtime by about 2ndash4 weeks in the year 2010 for some specieslike Acacia nilotica Delile Abrus precatorius Linn Bauhiniavariegata Linn Dalbergia sissoo Roxb Delonix regia Rafinand Parkinsonia aculeata Linn as compared to that observedin 2009 (Figure 3) This change in phenological shift can beattributed to increase in temperature in 2010 as compared tothat reported for 2009 (Table 1) The total length of floweringperiod was extended by 2ndash4 weeks in 2010-11 as comparedto 2009 for species like Bauhinia variegata Linn Caesalpiniapulcherrima (Linn) Sw Cassia fistula Linn Parkinsoniaaculeata Linn Acacia nilotica Delile Calliandra tweediiBenth and Prosopis juliflora DC
Journal of Botany 5
Nameof theplant
Nameof theplant
March April May June
Months
July
March April May June
Months
July
Caes
alpi
nia
pulch
errim
a (L
inn
) Sw
(3)
Caes
alpi
niac
eae
Caes
alpi
niac
eae
Caes
alpi
niac
eae
Caes
alpi
niac
eae
Seed
Seed
Seed
FRFL
Buds
Seed
FRFR
FRFL
FLFL
Buds
Buds
Buds
PP Year
PP Year
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
10
10
11Cassi
a gla
uca
Cassi
a fis
tula
Lin
n (4
) Ba
uhin
ia va
riega
ta L
inn
(4)
January February August September October November December
Lam
(3)
January February August September October November December
11
Figure 3 Continued
6 Journal of Botany
March April May June
Months
JulySe
edFR
FLBu
dsSe
edSe
edFR
FLBu
dsFR
FLBu
dsFR
FLBu
ds
Nameof theplant
Nameof theplant
PPPP
Year
Year
Cassi
a sia
mea
Delo
nix
regi
a Ra
fin (
3)Ca
esal
pini
acea
eCa
esal
pini
acea
eCa
esal
pini
acea
e
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
09
March April May June
Months
July
Mim
osac
eae
Park
insp
nia
acul
eata
Lin
n (2
) L
amk
(2)
Acac
ia a
uricu
lifor
mis
A C
unn
(3)
January February August September October November December
January February August September October November December
Seed
091011
Figure 3 Continued
Journal of Botany 7
March April May June
Months
July
Seed
Seed
FRFL
Buds
Seed
FRFL
Buds
FRFL
Buds
FRFL
Buds
Nameof theplant
PP Year
Nameof theplant
PP Year
1011
1011
1011
1011
09
09
09
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1009
March April May June
Months
July
January February August September October November December
August September October November DecemberJanuary February
11
Albi
zia
lebbe
ck B
enth
(2)
Mim
osac
eae
Acac
ia n
ilotic
a D
elile
(2)
Mim
osac
eae
Pros
opis
julifl
ora
DC
(3)
Mim
osac
eae
Calli
andr
a tw
eedi
i Be
nth
(2)
Mim
osac
eae
1011
09
Seed
Figure 3 Continued
8 Journal of Botany
March April May June
Months
July
March April May June
Months
July
Nameof theplant
PP Year
Nameof theplant
PP Year
Seed
Seed
FRFR
FLFL
Buds
Seed
FRFL
Buds
Buds
1011
1011
1011
1011
09
09
09
09
1011
09
1011
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
09
January
January
February
February
August
August
September October November December
September October November December
Abru
s pre
cato
rius
Papi
liona
ceae
Bute
a m
onos
perm
a (L
am)
Kunt
ze (2
)Pa
pilio
nace
aePa
pilio
nace
ae
Lin
n (3
)D
albe
rgia
sisso
o Ro
xb (
4)
Figure 3 Phenological diagrams of fifteen plant species belonging to families caesalpiniaceae mimosaceae and papilionaceae The darkcolored bars indicate the whole period of appearance of different phenophases including buds bud formation FL flowering FR fruiting andseed seed formation for three consecutive years Numbers in parenthesis beside the species names are the number of considered populations(PP phenophase)
Journal of Botany 9
Some other studies have also demonstrated an associationof an advancement in flowering date with climate changeOne study has reported an increase in the mean terrestrialsurface temperature by more than 02∘C per decade eversince 1970 [37] A number of other studies have shown anadvancement of phenological events as a result of increase intemperature [38ndash41] With the increase in the temperaturemost of the species showed earlier flowering time period [39]and even increase in their time period of flowering (egBauhinia variegate Linn Prosopis juliflora DC) Similarlyearly flowering was observed for 24 out of the 32 plant speciesstudied in a semiarid grassland by Lesica and Kittelson [17]
The period of maximum activity of bud formation in themonths of spring and the flowering period (started in springand extended to summer and the beginning of autumn) coin-cided with the observations of Pilar and Gabriel [12] Flowerdevelopment dates have been shown to be synchronousamong individuals of the same plant species studied whichseems to be important in increasing the chances of outcrosspollinations as suggested by Ollerton and Lack [42]
These changes in the phenological patterns can resultin adverse effects on insect pollinators as well as herbivores(if the plant species is present in barren or wild areas) thatdepend on those species for food [43 44] The changes inphenological patterns of plantrsquos response to different temper-ature and rainfall availability have been shown to be speciesspecific [45 46] Hence changes in vegetation communityspecies composition might also be responsible for changesin the phenology of the studied plants The present studyreveals that different plants of the same family (Leguminosae)flower at different times during the same year growing at samelocation under similar environmental conditions which canbe attributed to species-specific plant structural architecture
5 Conclusion
The present study reveals high phenological diversity forfour different phenophases among fifteen leguminous plantspecies growing in Amritsar with tropical dry deciduous typeof vegetation This study would be of great help in knowingthe timing of different phenophases of the studied plantswhich can be of interest to people of this region (or wheresimilar climatic conditions prevail) who wish to plan theirgardens and wish to have flowers in their gardens round theyear So they can select plants which flower during differentparts of the year This type of study can provide importantinsights into the biology of the plants concerned and revealphenological pattern of surveyed species This study wouldalso be of great help for comparison over long durationof time For example to see if there is any change in thephenological patterns of the same plant species in next 10 orso years Such comparative study could not be possible at thistime since no relevant literature is available for this region
Acknowledgment
The authors thank Department of Science and Technol-ogy Government of India for INSPIRE Fellowship to MsGurveen Kaur
References
[1] E R Heithaus ldquoThe role of plant-pollinator interactions indetermining community structurerdquo Annals of the MissouriBotanical Garden vol 61 pp 675ndash691 1974
[2] G W Frankie ldquoTropical forest phenology and pollinator plantcoevolutionrdquo inCoevolution of Animals and Plants L E Gilbertand P H Raven Eds pp 192ndash209 University of Texas PressAustin Tex USA 1975
[3] H R Pulliam andM R Brand ldquoThe production and utilizationof seeds in plains grassland of southeastern Arizonardquo Ecologyvol 56 pp 1158ndash1166 1975
[4] P A Opler G W Frankie and H G Baker ldquoRainfall as afactor in the release timing and synchronization of anthesis bytropical trees and shrubsrdquo Journal of Biogeography vol 3 pp231ndash236 1976
[5] J N Thompson and M F Willson ldquoEvolution of temperaturefruitbird interactions phenological strategiesrdquo Evolution vol33 pp 973ndash982 1979
[6] E W Stiles ldquoPatterns of fruit presentation and seed dispersal inbird disseminatedwoodyplants in the eastern deciduous forestrdquoThe American Naturalist vol 116 pp 670ndash688 1980
[7] G F Estabrook J AWinsor A G Stephenson andH F HoweldquoWhen are two phenological patterns differentrdquo BotanicalGazette vol 143 no 3 pp 374ndash378 1982
[8] H S Suresh and R Sukumar ldquoVegetative phenology of tropicalmontane forests in the Nilgiris South Indiardquo Journal of theNational Science Foundation of Sri Lanka vol 39 no 4 pp 333ndash343 2011
[9] M Monasterio and G Sarmiento ldquoPhenological strategies ofplant species in the tropical savanna and the semideciduousforest of the Venezuelan Ilanosrdquo Journal of Biogeography vol3 pp 352ndash356 1976
[10] D Lieberman ldquoSeasonality and phenology in a dry tropicalforest in Ghanardquo Journal of Ecology vol 70 no 3 pp 791ndash8061982
[11] R Milla P Castro-Dıez and G Montserrat-Martı ldquoPhenologyof Mediterranean woody plants from NE Spain synchronyseasonality and relationships among phenophasesrdquo Flora vol205 no 3 pp 190ndash199 2010
[12] C-D Pilar and M-M Gabriel ldquoPhenological pattern of fifteenMediterranean phanaerophytes fromQuercus ilex communitiesof NE-Spainrdquo Plant Ecology vol 139 no 1 pp 103ndash112 1998
[13] G Montserrat-Martı and C Perez-Rontome ldquoFruit growthdynamics and their effects on the phenological pattern of nativePistacia populations in NE Spainrdquo Flora vol 197 no 3 pp 161ndash174 2002
[14] D De Steven D M Windsor and F E Putz ldquoVegetative andreproductive phonologies of a palm assemblage in PanamardquoBiotropica vol 19 pp 342ndash356 1987
[15] S H Bullock and J A Solis-Magallanes ldquoPhenology of canopytrees of a tropical deciduous forest in Mexicordquo Biotropica vol22 pp 22ndash35 1990
[16] L Medway ldquoPhenology of a tropical rain forest in MalayardquoBiological Journal of the Linnean Society vol 4 no 2 pp 117ndash146 1972
[17] P Lesica and PM Kittelson ldquoPrecipitation and temperature areassociated with advanced flowering phenology in a semi-aridgrasslandrdquo Journal of Arid Environments vol 74 pp 1013ndash10172010
10 Journal of Botany
[18] M Shen Y Tang J Chen X Zhu and Y Zheng ldquoInfluencesof temperature and precipitation before the growing seasonon spring phenology in grasslands of the central and easternQinghai-Tibetan Plateaurdquo Agricultural and Forest Meteorologyvol 151 no 12 pp 1711ndash1722 2011
[19] R P Shukla and P S Ramakrishnan ldquoPhenology of trees in asub-tropical humid forest in north-eastern IndiardquoVegetatio vol49 no 2 pp 103ndash109 1982
[20] R P Shukla and P S Ramakrishnan ldquoLeaf dynamics of tropicaltrees related to successional statusrdquoNew Phytologist vol 97 no4 pp 697ndash706 1984
[21] P K Ralhan R K Khanna S P Singh and J S Singh ldquoPheno-logical characteristics of the tree layer of Kumaun Himalayanforestsrdquo Vegetatio vol 60 no 2 pp 91ndash101 1985
[22] Y P S Pangtey R S Rawal N S Bankoti and S S SamantldquoPhenology of high-altitude plants of Kumaun in CentralHimalaya Indiardquo International Journal of Biometeorology vol34 no 2 pp 122ndash127 1990
[23] S N Prasad and M Hegde ldquoPhenology and seasonality in thetropical deciduous forest of Bandipur South IndiardquoProceedingsPlant Sciences vol 96 no 2 pp 121ndash133 1986
[24] N Sivaraj and K V Krishnamurthy ldquoFlowering phenology inthe vegetation of Shervaroys South IndiardquoVegetatio vol 79 no1-2 pp 85ndash88 1988
[25] D M Bhat and K S Murali ldquoPhenology of understorey speciesof tropical moist forest of Western Ghats region of UttaraKannada district in South Indiardquo Current Science vol 81 no7 pp 799ndash805 2001
[26] K P Singh and C P Kushwaha ldquoDiversity of flowering andfruiting phenology of trees in a tropical deciduous forest inIndiardquo Annals of Botany vol 97 no 2 pp 265ndash276 2006
[27] R K Vashisthe N Rawat A K Chaturvedi B P Nautiyal PPrasad and M C Nautiyal ldquoAn exploration on the phenologyof different growth forms of an alpine expanse of north-westHimalaya Indiardquo New York Science Journal vol 2 pp 29ndash422009
[28] V P Upadhyay and P K Mishra ldquoPhenology of mangroves treespecies on Orissa coast Indiardquo Tropical Ecology vol 51 no 2pp 289ndash295 2010
[29] A RKasarkar andDKKulkarni ldquoPhenological studies of fam-ily zingiberaceae with special reference to Alpinia and Zingiberfrom Kolhapur region(MS) Indiardquo Bioscience Discovery vol 2pp 322ndash327 2011
[30] O Bajpai A Kumar A K Mishra N Sahu S K Behera and LB Chaudhary ldquoPhenological study of two dominant tree speciesin tropical moist deciduous forest from the Northern IndiardquoInternational Journal of Botany vol 8 pp 66ndash72 2012
[31] A Lokho and Y Kumar ldquoReproductive phenology and mor-phology analysis of IndianDendrobium Sw (Orchidaceae) fromthe northeast regionrdquo International Journal of Scientific andResearch Publications vol 2 pp 1ndash14 2012
[32] S H G Champion and S K SethA Revised Survey of the ForestTypes of India The manager of Publications Delhi India 1968
[33] R E Sosebee andH HWiebe ldquoEffect of phenological develop-ment on radiophosphorus translocation from leaves in crestedwheatgrassrdquo Oecologia vol 13 no 2 pp 103ndash112 1973
[34] F G Taylor Jr Phenodynamics of Production in a MesicDeciduous Forest USIBP Eastern Deciduous Forest Biome OakRidges National Laboratory Oak Ridge Tenn USA 1972
[35] M Y Nuttonson Wheat-Climate Relationships and the Useof Phenology in Ascertaining the Thermal and Photo-Thermal
Requirements of Wheat Based on Data of North America andSomeThermally Analogous Areas of North America in the SovietUnion and in Finland American Institute for Crop EcologyWashington DC USA 1955
[36] J P Blaisdell ldquoSeasonal development and yield of nativeplants on the upper Snake River plains and their relation tocertain climatic factorsrdquoUSDepartment of Agriculture TechnicalBulletin vol 1190 pp 1ndash68 1958
[37] J Hansen M Sato R Ruedy K Lo D W Lea and MMedina-Elizade ldquoGlobal temperature changerdquo Proceedings ofthe National Academy of Sciences of the United States of Americavol 103 no 39 pp 14288ndash14293 2006
[38] Y Julien and J A Sobrino ldquoGlobal land surface phenologytrends from GIMMS databaserdquo International Journal of RemoteSensing vol 30 no 13 pp 3495ndash3513 2009
[39] A Menzel T H Sparks N Estrella et al ldquoEuropean phenolog-ical response to climate change matches the warming patternrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 12 no 10 pp 1969ndash1976 2006
[40] C Parmesan and G Yohe ldquoA globally coherent fingerprint ofclimate change impacts across natural systemsrdquoNature vol 421no 6918 pp 37ndash42 2003
[41] S Piao J Fang L Zhou P Ciais and B Zhu ldquoVariations insatellite-derived phenology in Chinarsquos temperate vegetationrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 12 no 4 pp 672ndash685 2006
[42] J Ollerton and A J Lack ldquoFlowering phenology an exampleof relaxation of natural selectionrdquo Trends in Ecology andEvolution vol 7 no 8 pp 274ndash276 1992
[43] F Saavedra DW Inouye M V Price and J Harte ldquoChanges inflowering and abundance of Delphinium nuttallianum (Ranun-culaceae) in response to a subalpine climate warming experi-mentrdquo Global Change Biology vol 9 no 6 pp 885ndash894 2003
[44] N C Stenseth and AMysterud ldquoClimate changing phenologyand other life history traits nonlinearity and match-mismatchto the environmentrdquo Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of theUnited States of America vol 99 no 21 pp 13379ndash13381 2002
[45] I Ibanez R B Primack A J Miller-Rushing et al ldquoForecastingphenology under globalwarmingrdquoPhilosophical Transactions ofthe Royal Society B vol 365 no 1555 pp 3247ndash3260 2010
[46] C Parmesan ldquoInfluences of species latitudes and methodolo-gies on estimates of phenological response to global warmingrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 13 no 9 pp 1860ndash1872 2007
Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Anatomy Research International
PeptidesInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom
International Journal of
Volume 2014
Zoology
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Molecular Biology International
GenomicsInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
BioinformaticsAdvances in
Marine BiologyJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Signal TransductionJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
BioMed Research International
Evolutionary BiologyInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Biochemistry Research International
ArchaeaHindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Genetics Research International
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Advances in
Virolog y
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom
Nucleic AcidsJournal of
Volume 2014
Stem CellsInternational
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Enzyme Research
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
International Journal of
Microbiology
Journal of Botany 3
Table 1 Monthly minimum mean and maximum temperature in Amritsar for the years 2009 2010 and 2011
2009 2010 2011Min Mean Max Min Mean Max Min Mean Max
Jan 6 12 18 3 8 14 5 10 16Feb 9 16 23 10 16 22 9 14 20Mar 12 20 27 16 23 30 13 20 27Apr 18 26 34 21 30 38 17 25 33May 23 31 39 25 32 40 25 32 40Jun 25 33 41 26 32 39 26 31 37Jul 26 31 36 27 31 34 27 30 34Aug 27 30 35 26 29 33 26 29 32Sep 23 28 33 24 28 32 25 28 32Oct 21 26 32 20 25 31 18 25 32Nov 11 18 24 12 19 27 13 20 27Dec 5 13 21 5 12 20 6 13 21
Table 2 List of plant species studied with their abbreviation family sampling site growth form (T tree S shrub C climber) and leaf habit(E evergreen and D deciduous)
S No Species Abbreviation Family Sampling sitelowast Growth form Leaf habit1 Bauhinia variegata Linn Bva Caesalpiniaceae G S M R T D2 Caesalpinia pulcherrima (Linn) Sw Cpu Caesalpiniaceae G M R S E3 Cassia fistula Linn Cfi Caesalpiniaceae G S M R T D4 Cassia glauca Lam Cgl Caesalpiniaceae G S R S E5 Cassia siamea Lamk Csi Caesalpiniaceae G R T E6 Delonix regia Rafin Dre Caesalpiniaceae G S M T D7 Parkinsonia aculeata Linn Pac Caesalpiniaceae G R T D8 Acacia auriculiformis A Cunn Aau Mimosaceae G M R T E9 Acacia nilotica Delile Ani Mimosaceae G R T E10 Albizia lebbeck Benth Ale Mimosaceae G S T D11 Calliandra tweedii Benth Ctw Mimosaceae G R S E12 Prosopis juliflora DC Pju Mimosaceae G S M T E13 Abrus precatorius Linn Ape Papilionaceae G S R C D14 Buteamonosperma (Lam) Kuntze Bmo Papilionaceae G R T D15 Dalbergia sissoo Roxb Dsi Papilionaceae G S M R T DlowastSampling sites shown in Figure 1
Fruits and Seeds) during the study period are shown inFigure 2 This figure reveals that percentage of plant speciesexhibiting each phenophase that is buds flowers fruits andseeds showed almost a similar trend for three consecutiveyears within each phenophase Bud formation showed apeak in the beginning of summer (60) and another smallpeak during late monsoon and was almost evenly distributedthrough the rest of the year for all the three years Similartrend was observed for flowering which also showed a peak(6667) during beginning of summer and another smallpeak (5333) during postmonsoon period for all the threeyears Maximumpercentage of plant species showing fruitingwas observed in the months of March April and May (60)which resulted in maximum seed set in the months of JuneJuly and August during the study period Comparison ofresults on observations of flowering in different plant speciesduring the three consecutive years 2009 2010 and 2011reveals that maximum percentage of plant species (6667)showing floweringwas observed in themonth of April during2011
Figure 3 shows phenological patterns of individual plantspecies studied For each plant species the whole periodof appearance of different phenophases-like bud formationflowering fruiting and seed set has been indicated forthree consecutive years The study reveals high phonologicaldiversity for different phenophases studied among fifteenplant species However for individuals of the same species nodifferences in the appearance of different phenophases wereobserved
During the study period it was observed that somespecies like Bauhinia variegata Linn Caesalpinia pulcher-rima (Linn) Sw Cassia glauca Lam Cassia siamea Lamkand so forth showed conspicuous buds (2ndash4 weeks) beforeflowering but in case ofDalbergia sissoo Roxb bud formationwas observed just few days (less than a week) before promi-nent flowering was recorded Most of the species floweredfrom spring to late summer (eg Parkinsonia aculeata Linnand Acacia auriculiformis A Cunn) Butea monosperma(Lam) Kuntze exhibited flowering during the monsoon andpostmonsoon period only Some of the species that showed
4 Journal of Botany
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Month
20102011
2009
Buds
Plan
t spe
cies
()
(a)
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Flowers
80
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Month
20102011
2009
Plan
t spe
cies
()
(b)
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Month
20102011
2009
Fruits
Plan
t spe
cies
()
(c)
60
50
40
30
20
10
0Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Month
20102011
2009
SeedsPl
ant s
peci
es (
)
(d)
Figure 2 Percentage of plant species under study showing each phenophase buds (a) flowers (b) fruits (c) and seeds (d) during 2009 to2011
flowering during winter months extending to early summerincluded Caesalpinia pulcherrima (Linn) Sw Cassia siameaLamk and Delonix regia Rafin Variation in the floweringtime period was observed for different species ranging from2 months (Abrus precatorius Linn) to 7 months (Cassiaglauca Lam) Similarly the variation in fruiting period wasobserved from 3 months as in the case of Cassia siameaLamk and so forth to have fruiting almost throughout theyear as for Dalbergia sissoo Roxb By the end of summer theseeds of most of the plant species were mature and ready fordispersal There were two time periods in the year when leafshedding was observed that is in summer and in the autumndepending on the type of leaf habit of that plant species
4 Discussion
Our study reveals high phenological diversity for the fourphenological patterns (buds flowers fruits and seeds)among fifteen leguminous plant species growing in Amritsar
under similar environmental conditions for the three consec-utive years that is 2009 2010 and 2011 Changes in plantphenological patterns have been associated with the speciesspecific plant structural architecture availability and transferof nutrients [33] plant growth rates [34] temperature [35]and water [36]
A comparison of observations on flowering time for thethree years under study reveals an advancement of floweringtime by about 2ndash4 weeks in the year 2010 for some specieslike Acacia nilotica Delile Abrus precatorius Linn Bauhiniavariegata Linn Dalbergia sissoo Roxb Delonix regia Rafinand Parkinsonia aculeata Linn as compared to that observedin 2009 (Figure 3) This change in phenological shift can beattributed to increase in temperature in 2010 as compared tothat reported for 2009 (Table 1) The total length of floweringperiod was extended by 2ndash4 weeks in 2010-11 as comparedto 2009 for species like Bauhinia variegata Linn Caesalpiniapulcherrima (Linn) Sw Cassia fistula Linn Parkinsoniaaculeata Linn Acacia nilotica Delile Calliandra tweediiBenth and Prosopis juliflora DC
Journal of Botany 5
Nameof theplant
Nameof theplant
March April May June
Months
July
March April May June
Months
July
Caes
alpi
nia
pulch
errim
a (L
inn
) Sw
(3)
Caes
alpi
niac
eae
Caes
alpi
niac
eae
Caes
alpi
niac
eae
Caes
alpi
niac
eae
Seed
Seed
Seed
FRFL
Buds
Seed
FRFR
FRFL
FLFL
Buds
Buds
Buds
PP Year
PP Year
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
10
10
11Cassi
a gla
uca
Cassi
a fis
tula
Lin
n (4
) Ba
uhin
ia va
riega
ta L
inn
(4)
January February August September October November December
Lam
(3)
January February August September October November December
11
Figure 3 Continued
6 Journal of Botany
March April May June
Months
JulySe
edFR
FLBu
dsSe
edSe
edFR
FLBu
dsFR
FLBu
dsFR
FLBu
ds
Nameof theplant
Nameof theplant
PPPP
Year
Year
Cassi
a sia
mea
Delo
nix
regi
a Ra
fin (
3)Ca
esal
pini
acea
eCa
esal
pini
acea
eCa
esal
pini
acea
e
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
09
March April May June
Months
July
Mim
osac
eae
Park
insp
nia
acul
eata
Lin
n (2
) L
amk
(2)
Acac
ia a
uricu
lifor
mis
A C
unn
(3)
January February August September October November December
January February August September October November December
Seed
091011
Figure 3 Continued
Journal of Botany 7
March April May June
Months
July
Seed
Seed
FRFL
Buds
Seed
FRFL
Buds
FRFL
Buds
FRFL
Buds
Nameof theplant
PP Year
Nameof theplant
PP Year
1011
1011
1011
1011
09
09
09
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1009
March April May June
Months
July
January February August September October November December
August September October November DecemberJanuary February
11
Albi
zia
lebbe
ck B
enth
(2)
Mim
osac
eae
Acac
ia n
ilotic
a D
elile
(2)
Mim
osac
eae
Pros
opis
julifl
ora
DC
(3)
Mim
osac
eae
Calli
andr
a tw
eedi
i Be
nth
(2)
Mim
osac
eae
1011
09
Seed
Figure 3 Continued
8 Journal of Botany
March April May June
Months
July
March April May June
Months
July
Nameof theplant
PP Year
Nameof theplant
PP Year
Seed
Seed
FRFR
FLFL
Buds
Seed
FRFL
Buds
Buds
1011
1011
1011
1011
09
09
09
09
1011
09
1011
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
09
January
January
February
February
August
August
September October November December
September October November December
Abru
s pre
cato
rius
Papi
liona
ceae
Bute
a m
onos
perm
a (L
am)
Kunt
ze (2
)Pa
pilio
nace
aePa
pilio
nace
ae
Lin
n (3
)D
albe
rgia
sisso
o Ro
xb (
4)
Figure 3 Phenological diagrams of fifteen plant species belonging to families caesalpiniaceae mimosaceae and papilionaceae The darkcolored bars indicate the whole period of appearance of different phenophases including buds bud formation FL flowering FR fruiting andseed seed formation for three consecutive years Numbers in parenthesis beside the species names are the number of considered populations(PP phenophase)
Journal of Botany 9
Some other studies have also demonstrated an associationof an advancement in flowering date with climate changeOne study has reported an increase in the mean terrestrialsurface temperature by more than 02∘C per decade eversince 1970 [37] A number of other studies have shown anadvancement of phenological events as a result of increase intemperature [38ndash41] With the increase in the temperaturemost of the species showed earlier flowering time period [39]and even increase in their time period of flowering (egBauhinia variegate Linn Prosopis juliflora DC) Similarlyearly flowering was observed for 24 out of the 32 plant speciesstudied in a semiarid grassland by Lesica and Kittelson [17]
The period of maximum activity of bud formation in themonths of spring and the flowering period (started in springand extended to summer and the beginning of autumn) coin-cided with the observations of Pilar and Gabriel [12] Flowerdevelopment dates have been shown to be synchronousamong individuals of the same plant species studied whichseems to be important in increasing the chances of outcrosspollinations as suggested by Ollerton and Lack [42]
These changes in the phenological patterns can resultin adverse effects on insect pollinators as well as herbivores(if the plant species is present in barren or wild areas) thatdepend on those species for food [43 44] The changes inphenological patterns of plantrsquos response to different temper-ature and rainfall availability have been shown to be speciesspecific [45 46] Hence changes in vegetation communityspecies composition might also be responsible for changesin the phenology of the studied plants The present studyreveals that different plants of the same family (Leguminosae)flower at different times during the same year growing at samelocation under similar environmental conditions which canbe attributed to species-specific plant structural architecture
5 Conclusion
The present study reveals high phenological diversity forfour different phenophases among fifteen leguminous plantspecies growing in Amritsar with tropical dry deciduous typeof vegetation This study would be of great help in knowingthe timing of different phenophases of the studied plantswhich can be of interest to people of this region (or wheresimilar climatic conditions prevail) who wish to plan theirgardens and wish to have flowers in their gardens round theyear So they can select plants which flower during differentparts of the year This type of study can provide importantinsights into the biology of the plants concerned and revealphenological pattern of surveyed species This study wouldalso be of great help for comparison over long durationof time For example to see if there is any change in thephenological patterns of the same plant species in next 10 orso years Such comparative study could not be possible at thistime since no relevant literature is available for this region
Acknowledgment
The authors thank Department of Science and Technol-ogy Government of India for INSPIRE Fellowship to MsGurveen Kaur
References
[1] E R Heithaus ldquoThe role of plant-pollinator interactions indetermining community structurerdquo Annals of the MissouriBotanical Garden vol 61 pp 675ndash691 1974
[2] G W Frankie ldquoTropical forest phenology and pollinator plantcoevolutionrdquo inCoevolution of Animals and Plants L E Gilbertand P H Raven Eds pp 192ndash209 University of Texas PressAustin Tex USA 1975
[3] H R Pulliam andM R Brand ldquoThe production and utilizationof seeds in plains grassland of southeastern Arizonardquo Ecologyvol 56 pp 1158ndash1166 1975
[4] P A Opler G W Frankie and H G Baker ldquoRainfall as afactor in the release timing and synchronization of anthesis bytropical trees and shrubsrdquo Journal of Biogeography vol 3 pp231ndash236 1976
[5] J N Thompson and M F Willson ldquoEvolution of temperaturefruitbird interactions phenological strategiesrdquo Evolution vol33 pp 973ndash982 1979
[6] E W Stiles ldquoPatterns of fruit presentation and seed dispersal inbird disseminatedwoodyplants in the eastern deciduous forestrdquoThe American Naturalist vol 116 pp 670ndash688 1980
[7] G F Estabrook J AWinsor A G Stephenson andH F HoweldquoWhen are two phenological patterns differentrdquo BotanicalGazette vol 143 no 3 pp 374ndash378 1982
[8] H S Suresh and R Sukumar ldquoVegetative phenology of tropicalmontane forests in the Nilgiris South Indiardquo Journal of theNational Science Foundation of Sri Lanka vol 39 no 4 pp 333ndash343 2011
[9] M Monasterio and G Sarmiento ldquoPhenological strategies ofplant species in the tropical savanna and the semideciduousforest of the Venezuelan Ilanosrdquo Journal of Biogeography vol3 pp 352ndash356 1976
[10] D Lieberman ldquoSeasonality and phenology in a dry tropicalforest in Ghanardquo Journal of Ecology vol 70 no 3 pp 791ndash8061982
[11] R Milla P Castro-Dıez and G Montserrat-Martı ldquoPhenologyof Mediterranean woody plants from NE Spain synchronyseasonality and relationships among phenophasesrdquo Flora vol205 no 3 pp 190ndash199 2010
[12] C-D Pilar and M-M Gabriel ldquoPhenological pattern of fifteenMediterranean phanaerophytes fromQuercus ilex communitiesof NE-Spainrdquo Plant Ecology vol 139 no 1 pp 103ndash112 1998
[13] G Montserrat-Martı and C Perez-Rontome ldquoFruit growthdynamics and their effects on the phenological pattern of nativePistacia populations in NE Spainrdquo Flora vol 197 no 3 pp 161ndash174 2002
[14] D De Steven D M Windsor and F E Putz ldquoVegetative andreproductive phonologies of a palm assemblage in PanamardquoBiotropica vol 19 pp 342ndash356 1987
[15] S H Bullock and J A Solis-Magallanes ldquoPhenology of canopytrees of a tropical deciduous forest in Mexicordquo Biotropica vol22 pp 22ndash35 1990
[16] L Medway ldquoPhenology of a tropical rain forest in MalayardquoBiological Journal of the Linnean Society vol 4 no 2 pp 117ndash146 1972
[17] P Lesica and PM Kittelson ldquoPrecipitation and temperature areassociated with advanced flowering phenology in a semi-aridgrasslandrdquo Journal of Arid Environments vol 74 pp 1013ndash10172010
10 Journal of Botany
[18] M Shen Y Tang J Chen X Zhu and Y Zheng ldquoInfluencesof temperature and precipitation before the growing seasonon spring phenology in grasslands of the central and easternQinghai-Tibetan Plateaurdquo Agricultural and Forest Meteorologyvol 151 no 12 pp 1711ndash1722 2011
[19] R P Shukla and P S Ramakrishnan ldquoPhenology of trees in asub-tropical humid forest in north-eastern IndiardquoVegetatio vol49 no 2 pp 103ndash109 1982
[20] R P Shukla and P S Ramakrishnan ldquoLeaf dynamics of tropicaltrees related to successional statusrdquoNew Phytologist vol 97 no4 pp 697ndash706 1984
[21] P K Ralhan R K Khanna S P Singh and J S Singh ldquoPheno-logical characteristics of the tree layer of Kumaun Himalayanforestsrdquo Vegetatio vol 60 no 2 pp 91ndash101 1985
[22] Y P S Pangtey R S Rawal N S Bankoti and S S SamantldquoPhenology of high-altitude plants of Kumaun in CentralHimalaya Indiardquo International Journal of Biometeorology vol34 no 2 pp 122ndash127 1990
[23] S N Prasad and M Hegde ldquoPhenology and seasonality in thetropical deciduous forest of Bandipur South IndiardquoProceedingsPlant Sciences vol 96 no 2 pp 121ndash133 1986
[24] N Sivaraj and K V Krishnamurthy ldquoFlowering phenology inthe vegetation of Shervaroys South IndiardquoVegetatio vol 79 no1-2 pp 85ndash88 1988
[25] D M Bhat and K S Murali ldquoPhenology of understorey speciesof tropical moist forest of Western Ghats region of UttaraKannada district in South Indiardquo Current Science vol 81 no7 pp 799ndash805 2001
[26] K P Singh and C P Kushwaha ldquoDiversity of flowering andfruiting phenology of trees in a tropical deciduous forest inIndiardquo Annals of Botany vol 97 no 2 pp 265ndash276 2006
[27] R K Vashisthe N Rawat A K Chaturvedi B P Nautiyal PPrasad and M C Nautiyal ldquoAn exploration on the phenologyof different growth forms of an alpine expanse of north-westHimalaya Indiardquo New York Science Journal vol 2 pp 29ndash422009
[28] V P Upadhyay and P K Mishra ldquoPhenology of mangroves treespecies on Orissa coast Indiardquo Tropical Ecology vol 51 no 2pp 289ndash295 2010
[29] A RKasarkar andDKKulkarni ldquoPhenological studies of fam-ily zingiberaceae with special reference to Alpinia and Zingiberfrom Kolhapur region(MS) Indiardquo Bioscience Discovery vol 2pp 322ndash327 2011
[30] O Bajpai A Kumar A K Mishra N Sahu S K Behera and LB Chaudhary ldquoPhenological study of two dominant tree speciesin tropical moist deciduous forest from the Northern IndiardquoInternational Journal of Botany vol 8 pp 66ndash72 2012
[31] A Lokho and Y Kumar ldquoReproductive phenology and mor-phology analysis of IndianDendrobium Sw (Orchidaceae) fromthe northeast regionrdquo International Journal of Scientific andResearch Publications vol 2 pp 1ndash14 2012
[32] S H G Champion and S K SethA Revised Survey of the ForestTypes of India The manager of Publications Delhi India 1968
[33] R E Sosebee andH HWiebe ldquoEffect of phenological develop-ment on radiophosphorus translocation from leaves in crestedwheatgrassrdquo Oecologia vol 13 no 2 pp 103ndash112 1973
[34] F G Taylor Jr Phenodynamics of Production in a MesicDeciduous Forest USIBP Eastern Deciduous Forest Biome OakRidges National Laboratory Oak Ridge Tenn USA 1972
[35] M Y Nuttonson Wheat-Climate Relationships and the Useof Phenology in Ascertaining the Thermal and Photo-Thermal
Requirements of Wheat Based on Data of North America andSomeThermally Analogous Areas of North America in the SovietUnion and in Finland American Institute for Crop EcologyWashington DC USA 1955
[36] J P Blaisdell ldquoSeasonal development and yield of nativeplants on the upper Snake River plains and their relation tocertain climatic factorsrdquoUSDepartment of Agriculture TechnicalBulletin vol 1190 pp 1ndash68 1958
[37] J Hansen M Sato R Ruedy K Lo D W Lea and MMedina-Elizade ldquoGlobal temperature changerdquo Proceedings ofthe National Academy of Sciences of the United States of Americavol 103 no 39 pp 14288ndash14293 2006
[38] Y Julien and J A Sobrino ldquoGlobal land surface phenologytrends from GIMMS databaserdquo International Journal of RemoteSensing vol 30 no 13 pp 3495ndash3513 2009
[39] A Menzel T H Sparks N Estrella et al ldquoEuropean phenolog-ical response to climate change matches the warming patternrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 12 no 10 pp 1969ndash1976 2006
[40] C Parmesan and G Yohe ldquoA globally coherent fingerprint ofclimate change impacts across natural systemsrdquoNature vol 421no 6918 pp 37ndash42 2003
[41] S Piao J Fang L Zhou P Ciais and B Zhu ldquoVariations insatellite-derived phenology in Chinarsquos temperate vegetationrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 12 no 4 pp 672ndash685 2006
[42] J Ollerton and A J Lack ldquoFlowering phenology an exampleof relaxation of natural selectionrdquo Trends in Ecology andEvolution vol 7 no 8 pp 274ndash276 1992
[43] F Saavedra DW Inouye M V Price and J Harte ldquoChanges inflowering and abundance of Delphinium nuttallianum (Ranun-culaceae) in response to a subalpine climate warming experi-mentrdquo Global Change Biology vol 9 no 6 pp 885ndash894 2003
[44] N C Stenseth and AMysterud ldquoClimate changing phenologyand other life history traits nonlinearity and match-mismatchto the environmentrdquo Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of theUnited States of America vol 99 no 21 pp 13379ndash13381 2002
[45] I Ibanez R B Primack A J Miller-Rushing et al ldquoForecastingphenology under globalwarmingrdquoPhilosophical Transactions ofthe Royal Society B vol 365 no 1555 pp 3247ndash3260 2010
[46] C Parmesan ldquoInfluences of species latitudes and methodolo-gies on estimates of phenological response to global warmingrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 13 no 9 pp 1860ndash1872 2007
Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Anatomy Research International
PeptidesInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom
International Journal of
Volume 2014
Zoology
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Molecular Biology International
GenomicsInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
BioinformaticsAdvances in
Marine BiologyJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Signal TransductionJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
BioMed Research International
Evolutionary BiologyInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Biochemistry Research International
ArchaeaHindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Genetics Research International
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Advances in
Virolog y
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom
Nucleic AcidsJournal of
Volume 2014
Stem CellsInternational
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Enzyme Research
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
International Journal of
Microbiology
4 Journal of Botany
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Month
20102011
2009
Buds
Plan
t spe
cies
()
(a)
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Flowers
80
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Month
20102011
2009
Plan
t spe
cies
()
(b)
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Month
20102011
2009
Fruits
Plan
t spe
cies
()
(c)
60
50
40
30
20
10
0Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Month
20102011
2009
SeedsPl
ant s
peci
es (
)
(d)
Figure 2 Percentage of plant species under study showing each phenophase buds (a) flowers (b) fruits (c) and seeds (d) during 2009 to2011
flowering during winter months extending to early summerincluded Caesalpinia pulcherrima (Linn) Sw Cassia siameaLamk and Delonix regia Rafin Variation in the floweringtime period was observed for different species ranging from2 months (Abrus precatorius Linn) to 7 months (Cassiaglauca Lam) Similarly the variation in fruiting period wasobserved from 3 months as in the case of Cassia siameaLamk and so forth to have fruiting almost throughout theyear as for Dalbergia sissoo Roxb By the end of summer theseeds of most of the plant species were mature and ready fordispersal There were two time periods in the year when leafshedding was observed that is in summer and in the autumndepending on the type of leaf habit of that plant species
4 Discussion
Our study reveals high phenological diversity for the fourphenological patterns (buds flowers fruits and seeds)among fifteen leguminous plant species growing in Amritsar
under similar environmental conditions for the three consec-utive years that is 2009 2010 and 2011 Changes in plantphenological patterns have been associated with the speciesspecific plant structural architecture availability and transferof nutrients [33] plant growth rates [34] temperature [35]and water [36]
A comparison of observations on flowering time for thethree years under study reveals an advancement of floweringtime by about 2ndash4 weeks in the year 2010 for some specieslike Acacia nilotica Delile Abrus precatorius Linn Bauhiniavariegata Linn Dalbergia sissoo Roxb Delonix regia Rafinand Parkinsonia aculeata Linn as compared to that observedin 2009 (Figure 3) This change in phenological shift can beattributed to increase in temperature in 2010 as compared tothat reported for 2009 (Table 1) The total length of floweringperiod was extended by 2ndash4 weeks in 2010-11 as comparedto 2009 for species like Bauhinia variegata Linn Caesalpiniapulcherrima (Linn) Sw Cassia fistula Linn Parkinsoniaaculeata Linn Acacia nilotica Delile Calliandra tweediiBenth and Prosopis juliflora DC
Journal of Botany 5
Nameof theplant
Nameof theplant
March April May June
Months
July
March April May June
Months
July
Caes
alpi
nia
pulch
errim
a (L
inn
) Sw
(3)
Caes
alpi
niac
eae
Caes
alpi
niac
eae
Caes
alpi
niac
eae
Caes
alpi
niac
eae
Seed
Seed
Seed
FRFL
Buds
Seed
FRFR
FRFL
FLFL
Buds
Buds
Buds
PP Year
PP Year
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
10
10
11Cassi
a gla
uca
Cassi
a fis
tula
Lin
n (4
) Ba
uhin
ia va
riega
ta L
inn
(4)
January February August September October November December
Lam
(3)
January February August September October November December
11
Figure 3 Continued
6 Journal of Botany
March April May June
Months
JulySe
edFR
FLBu
dsSe
edSe
edFR
FLBu
dsFR
FLBu
dsFR
FLBu
ds
Nameof theplant
Nameof theplant
PPPP
Year
Year
Cassi
a sia
mea
Delo
nix
regi
a Ra
fin (
3)Ca
esal
pini
acea
eCa
esal
pini
acea
eCa
esal
pini
acea
e
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
09
March April May June
Months
July
Mim
osac
eae
Park
insp
nia
acul
eata
Lin
n (2
) L
amk
(2)
Acac
ia a
uricu
lifor
mis
A C
unn
(3)
January February August September October November December
January February August September October November December
Seed
091011
Figure 3 Continued
Journal of Botany 7
March April May June
Months
July
Seed
Seed
FRFL
Buds
Seed
FRFL
Buds
FRFL
Buds
FRFL
Buds
Nameof theplant
PP Year
Nameof theplant
PP Year
1011
1011
1011
1011
09
09
09
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1009
March April May June
Months
July
January February August September October November December
August September October November DecemberJanuary February
11
Albi
zia
lebbe
ck B
enth
(2)
Mim
osac
eae
Acac
ia n
ilotic
a D
elile
(2)
Mim
osac
eae
Pros
opis
julifl
ora
DC
(3)
Mim
osac
eae
Calli
andr
a tw
eedi
i Be
nth
(2)
Mim
osac
eae
1011
09
Seed
Figure 3 Continued
8 Journal of Botany
March April May June
Months
July
March April May June
Months
July
Nameof theplant
PP Year
Nameof theplant
PP Year
Seed
Seed
FRFR
FLFL
Buds
Seed
FRFL
Buds
Buds
1011
1011
1011
1011
09
09
09
09
1011
09
1011
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
09
January
January
February
February
August
August
September October November December
September October November December
Abru
s pre
cato
rius
Papi
liona
ceae
Bute
a m
onos
perm
a (L
am)
Kunt
ze (2
)Pa
pilio
nace
aePa
pilio
nace
ae
Lin
n (3
)D
albe
rgia
sisso
o Ro
xb (
4)
Figure 3 Phenological diagrams of fifteen plant species belonging to families caesalpiniaceae mimosaceae and papilionaceae The darkcolored bars indicate the whole period of appearance of different phenophases including buds bud formation FL flowering FR fruiting andseed seed formation for three consecutive years Numbers in parenthesis beside the species names are the number of considered populations(PP phenophase)
Journal of Botany 9
Some other studies have also demonstrated an associationof an advancement in flowering date with climate changeOne study has reported an increase in the mean terrestrialsurface temperature by more than 02∘C per decade eversince 1970 [37] A number of other studies have shown anadvancement of phenological events as a result of increase intemperature [38ndash41] With the increase in the temperaturemost of the species showed earlier flowering time period [39]and even increase in their time period of flowering (egBauhinia variegate Linn Prosopis juliflora DC) Similarlyearly flowering was observed for 24 out of the 32 plant speciesstudied in a semiarid grassland by Lesica and Kittelson [17]
The period of maximum activity of bud formation in themonths of spring and the flowering period (started in springand extended to summer and the beginning of autumn) coin-cided with the observations of Pilar and Gabriel [12] Flowerdevelopment dates have been shown to be synchronousamong individuals of the same plant species studied whichseems to be important in increasing the chances of outcrosspollinations as suggested by Ollerton and Lack [42]
These changes in the phenological patterns can resultin adverse effects on insect pollinators as well as herbivores(if the plant species is present in barren or wild areas) thatdepend on those species for food [43 44] The changes inphenological patterns of plantrsquos response to different temper-ature and rainfall availability have been shown to be speciesspecific [45 46] Hence changes in vegetation communityspecies composition might also be responsible for changesin the phenology of the studied plants The present studyreveals that different plants of the same family (Leguminosae)flower at different times during the same year growing at samelocation under similar environmental conditions which canbe attributed to species-specific plant structural architecture
5 Conclusion
The present study reveals high phenological diversity forfour different phenophases among fifteen leguminous plantspecies growing in Amritsar with tropical dry deciduous typeof vegetation This study would be of great help in knowingthe timing of different phenophases of the studied plantswhich can be of interest to people of this region (or wheresimilar climatic conditions prevail) who wish to plan theirgardens and wish to have flowers in their gardens round theyear So they can select plants which flower during differentparts of the year This type of study can provide importantinsights into the biology of the plants concerned and revealphenological pattern of surveyed species This study wouldalso be of great help for comparison over long durationof time For example to see if there is any change in thephenological patterns of the same plant species in next 10 orso years Such comparative study could not be possible at thistime since no relevant literature is available for this region
Acknowledgment
The authors thank Department of Science and Technol-ogy Government of India for INSPIRE Fellowship to MsGurveen Kaur
References
[1] E R Heithaus ldquoThe role of plant-pollinator interactions indetermining community structurerdquo Annals of the MissouriBotanical Garden vol 61 pp 675ndash691 1974
[2] G W Frankie ldquoTropical forest phenology and pollinator plantcoevolutionrdquo inCoevolution of Animals and Plants L E Gilbertand P H Raven Eds pp 192ndash209 University of Texas PressAustin Tex USA 1975
[3] H R Pulliam andM R Brand ldquoThe production and utilizationof seeds in plains grassland of southeastern Arizonardquo Ecologyvol 56 pp 1158ndash1166 1975
[4] P A Opler G W Frankie and H G Baker ldquoRainfall as afactor in the release timing and synchronization of anthesis bytropical trees and shrubsrdquo Journal of Biogeography vol 3 pp231ndash236 1976
[5] J N Thompson and M F Willson ldquoEvolution of temperaturefruitbird interactions phenological strategiesrdquo Evolution vol33 pp 973ndash982 1979
[6] E W Stiles ldquoPatterns of fruit presentation and seed dispersal inbird disseminatedwoodyplants in the eastern deciduous forestrdquoThe American Naturalist vol 116 pp 670ndash688 1980
[7] G F Estabrook J AWinsor A G Stephenson andH F HoweldquoWhen are two phenological patterns differentrdquo BotanicalGazette vol 143 no 3 pp 374ndash378 1982
[8] H S Suresh and R Sukumar ldquoVegetative phenology of tropicalmontane forests in the Nilgiris South Indiardquo Journal of theNational Science Foundation of Sri Lanka vol 39 no 4 pp 333ndash343 2011
[9] M Monasterio and G Sarmiento ldquoPhenological strategies ofplant species in the tropical savanna and the semideciduousforest of the Venezuelan Ilanosrdquo Journal of Biogeography vol3 pp 352ndash356 1976
[10] D Lieberman ldquoSeasonality and phenology in a dry tropicalforest in Ghanardquo Journal of Ecology vol 70 no 3 pp 791ndash8061982
[11] R Milla P Castro-Dıez and G Montserrat-Martı ldquoPhenologyof Mediterranean woody plants from NE Spain synchronyseasonality and relationships among phenophasesrdquo Flora vol205 no 3 pp 190ndash199 2010
[12] C-D Pilar and M-M Gabriel ldquoPhenological pattern of fifteenMediterranean phanaerophytes fromQuercus ilex communitiesof NE-Spainrdquo Plant Ecology vol 139 no 1 pp 103ndash112 1998
[13] G Montserrat-Martı and C Perez-Rontome ldquoFruit growthdynamics and their effects on the phenological pattern of nativePistacia populations in NE Spainrdquo Flora vol 197 no 3 pp 161ndash174 2002
[14] D De Steven D M Windsor and F E Putz ldquoVegetative andreproductive phonologies of a palm assemblage in PanamardquoBiotropica vol 19 pp 342ndash356 1987
[15] S H Bullock and J A Solis-Magallanes ldquoPhenology of canopytrees of a tropical deciduous forest in Mexicordquo Biotropica vol22 pp 22ndash35 1990
[16] L Medway ldquoPhenology of a tropical rain forest in MalayardquoBiological Journal of the Linnean Society vol 4 no 2 pp 117ndash146 1972
[17] P Lesica and PM Kittelson ldquoPrecipitation and temperature areassociated with advanced flowering phenology in a semi-aridgrasslandrdquo Journal of Arid Environments vol 74 pp 1013ndash10172010
10 Journal of Botany
[18] M Shen Y Tang J Chen X Zhu and Y Zheng ldquoInfluencesof temperature and precipitation before the growing seasonon spring phenology in grasslands of the central and easternQinghai-Tibetan Plateaurdquo Agricultural and Forest Meteorologyvol 151 no 12 pp 1711ndash1722 2011
[19] R P Shukla and P S Ramakrishnan ldquoPhenology of trees in asub-tropical humid forest in north-eastern IndiardquoVegetatio vol49 no 2 pp 103ndash109 1982
[20] R P Shukla and P S Ramakrishnan ldquoLeaf dynamics of tropicaltrees related to successional statusrdquoNew Phytologist vol 97 no4 pp 697ndash706 1984
[21] P K Ralhan R K Khanna S P Singh and J S Singh ldquoPheno-logical characteristics of the tree layer of Kumaun Himalayanforestsrdquo Vegetatio vol 60 no 2 pp 91ndash101 1985
[22] Y P S Pangtey R S Rawal N S Bankoti and S S SamantldquoPhenology of high-altitude plants of Kumaun in CentralHimalaya Indiardquo International Journal of Biometeorology vol34 no 2 pp 122ndash127 1990
[23] S N Prasad and M Hegde ldquoPhenology and seasonality in thetropical deciduous forest of Bandipur South IndiardquoProceedingsPlant Sciences vol 96 no 2 pp 121ndash133 1986
[24] N Sivaraj and K V Krishnamurthy ldquoFlowering phenology inthe vegetation of Shervaroys South IndiardquoVegetatio vol 79 no1-2 pp 85ndash88 1988
[25] D M Bhat and K S Murali ldquoPhenology of understorey speciesof tropical moist forest of Western Ghats region of UttaraKannada district in South Indiardquo Current Science vol 81 no7 pp 799ndash805 2001
[26] K P Singh and C P Kushwaha ldquoDiversity of flowering andfruiting phenology of trees in a tropical deciduous forest inIndiardquo Annals of Botany vol 97 no 2 pp 265ndash276 2006
[27] R K Vashisthe N Rawat A K Chaturvedi B P Nautiyal PPrasad and M C Nautiyal ldquoAn exploration on the phenologyof different growth forms of an alpine expanse of north-westHimalaya Indiardquo New York Science Journal vol 2 pp 29ndash422009
[28] V P Upadhyay and P K Mishra ldquoPhenology of mangroves treespecies on Orissa coast Indiardquo Tropical Ecology vol 51 no 2pp 289ndash295 2010
[29] A RKasarkar andDKKulkarni ldquoPhenological studies of fam-ily zingiberaceae with special reference to Alpinia and Zingiberfrom Kolhapur region(MS) Indiardquo Bioscience Discovery vol 2pp 322ndash327 2011
[30] O Bajpai A Kumar A K Mishra N Sahu S K Behera and LB Chaudhary ldquoPhenological study of two dominant tree speciesin tropical moist deciduous forest from the Northern IndiardquoInternational Journal of Botany vol 8 pp 66ndash72 2012
[31] A Lokho and Y Kumar ldquoReproductive phenology and mor-phology analysis of IndianDendrobium Sw (Orchidaceae) fromthe northeast regionrdquo International Journal of Scientific andResearch Publications vol 2 pp 1ndash14 2012
[32] S H G Champion and S K SethA Revised Survey of the ForestTypes of India The manager of Publications Delhi India 1968
[33] R E Sosebee andH HWiebe ldquoEffect of phenological develop-ment on radiophosphorus translocation from leaves in crestedwheatgrassrdquo Oecologia vol 13 no 2 pp 103ndash112 1973
[34] F G Taylor Jr Phenodynamics of Production in a MesicDeciduous Forest USIBP Eastern Deciduous Forest Biome OakRidges National Laboratory Oak Ridge Tenn USA 1972
[35] M Y Nuttonson Wheat-Climate Relationships and the Useof Phenology in Ascertaining the Thermal and Photo-Thermal
Requirements of Wheat Based on Data of North America andSomeThermally Analogous Areas of North America in the SovietUnion and in Finland American Institute for Crop EcologyWashington DC USA 1955
[36] J P Blaisdell ldquoSeasonal development and yield of nativeplants on the upper Snake River plains and their relation tocertain climatic factorsrdquoUSDepartment of Agriculture TechnicalBulletin vol 1190 pp 1ndash68 1958
[37] J Hansen M Sato R Ruedy K Lo D W Lea and MMedina-Elizade ldquoGlobal temperature changerdquo Proceedings ofthe National Academy of Sciences of the United States of Americavol 103 no 39 pp 14288ndash14293 2006
[38] Y Julien and J A Sobrino ldquoGlobal land surface phenologytrends from GIMMS databaserdquo International Journal of RemoteSensing vol 30 no 13 pp 3495ndash3513 2009
[39] A Menzel T H Sparks N Estrella et al ldquoEuropean phenolog-ical response to climate change matches the warming patternrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 12 no 10 pp 1969ndash1976 2006
[40] C Parmesan and G Yohe ldquoA globally coherent fingerprint ofclimate change impacts across natural systemsrdquoNature vol 421no 6918 pp 37ndash42 2003
[41] S Piao J Fang L Zhou P Ciais and B Zhu ldquoVariations insatellite-derived phenology in Chinarsquos temperate vegetationrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 12 no 4 pp 672ndash685 2006
[42] J Ollerton and A J Lack ldquoFlowering phenology an exampleof relaxation of natural selectionrdquo Trends in Ecology andEvolution vol 7 no 8 pp 274ndash276 1992
[43] F Saavedra DW Inouye M V Price and J Harte ldquoChanges inflowering and abundance of Delphinium nuttallianum (Ranun-culaceae) in response to a subalpine climate warming experi-mentrdquo Global Change Biology vol 9 no 6 pp 885ndash894 2003
[44] N C Stenseth and AMysterud ldquoClimate changing phenologyand other life history traits nonlinearity and match-mismatchto the environmentrdquo Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of theUnited States of America vol 99 no 21 pp 13379ndash13381 2002
[45] I Ibanez R B Primack A J Miller-Rushing et al ldquoForecastingphenology under globalwarmingrdquoPhilosophical Transactions ofthe Royal Society B vol 365 no 1555 pp 3247ndash3260 2010
[46] C Parmesan ldquoInfluences of species latitudes and methodolo-gies on estimates of phenological response to global warmingrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 13 no 9 pp 1860ndash1872 2007
Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Anatomy Research International
PeptidesInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom
International Journal of
Volume 2014
Zoology
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Molecular Biology International
GenomicsInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
BioinformaticsAdvances in
Marine BiologyJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Signal TransductionJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
BioMed Research International
Evolutionary BiologyInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Biochemistry Research International
ArchaeaHindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Genetics Research International
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Advances in
Virolog y
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom
Nucleic AcidsJournal of
Volume 2014
Stem CellsInternational
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Enzyme Research
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
International Journal of
Microbiology
Journal of Botany 5
Nameof theplant
Nameof theplant
March April May June
Months
July
March April May June
Months
July
Caes
alpi
nia
pulch
errim
a (L
inn
) Sw
(3)
Caes
alpi
niac
eae
Caes
alpi
niac
eae
Caes
alpi
niac
eae
Caes
alpi
niac
eae
Seed
Seed
Seed
FRFL
Buds
Seed
FRFR
FRFL
FLFL
Buds
Buds
Buds
PP Year
PP Year
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
10
10
11Cassi
a gla
uca
Cassi
a fis
tula
Lin
n (4
) Ba
uhin
ia va
riega
ta L
inn
(4)
January February August September October November December
Lam
(3)
January February August September October November December
11
Figure 3 Continued
6 Journal of Botany
March April May June
Months
JulySe
edFR
FLBu
dsSe
edSe
edFR
FLBu
dsFR
FLBu
dsFR
FLBu
ds
Nameof theplant
Nameof theplant
PPPP
Year
Year
Cassi
a sia
mea
Delo
nix
regi
a Ra
fin (
3)Ca
esal
pini
acea
eCa
esal
pini
acea
eCa
esal
pini
acea
e
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
09
March April May June
Months
July
Mim
osac
eae
Park
insp
nia
acul
eata
Lin
n (2
) L
amk
(2)
Acac
ia a
uricu
lifor
mis
A C
unn
(3)
January February August September October November December
January February August September October November December
Seed
091011
Figure 3 Continued
Journal of Botany 7
March April May June
Months
July
Seed
Seed
FRFL
Buds
Seed
FRFL
Buds
FRFL
Buds
FRFL
Buds
Nameof theplant
PP Year
Nameof theplant
PP Year
1011
1011
1011
1011
09
09
09
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1009
March April May June
Months
July
January February August September October November December
August September October November DecemberJanuary February
11
Albi
zia
lebbe
ck B
enth
(2)
Mim
osac
eae
Acac
ia n
ilotic
a D
elile
(2)
Mim
osac
eae
Pros
opis
julifl
ora
DC
(3)
Mim
osac
eae
Calli
andr
a tw
eedi
i Be
nth
(2)
Mim
osac
eae
1011
09
Seed
Figure 3 Continued
8 Journal of Botany
March April May June
Months
July
March April May June
Months
July
Nameof theplant
PP Year
Nameof theplant
PP Year
Seed
Seed
FRFR
FLFL
Buds
Seed
FRFL
Buds
Buds
1011
1011
1011
1011
09
09
09
09
1011
09
1011
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
09
January
January
February
February
August
August
September October November December
September October November December
Abru
s pre
cato
rius
Papi
liona
ceae
Bute
a m
onos
perm
a (L
am)
Kunt
ze (2
)Pa
pilio
nace
aePa
pilio
nace
ae
Lin
n (3
)D
albe
rgia
sisso
o Ro
xb (
4)
Figure 3 Phenological diagrams of fifteen plant species belonging to families caesalpiniaceae mimosaceae and papilionaceae The darkcolored bars indicate the whole period of appearance of different phenophases including buds bud formation FL flowering FR fruiting andseed seed formation for three consecutive years Numbers in parenthesis beside the species names are the number of considered populations(PP phenophase)
Journal of Botany 9
Some other studies have also demonstrated an associationof an advancement in flowering date with climate changeOne study has reported an increase in the mean terrestrialsurface temperature by more than 02∘C per decade eversince 1970 [37] A number of other studies have shown anadvancement of phenological events as a result of increase intemperature [38ndash41] With the increase in the temperaturemost of the species showed earlier flowering time period [39]and even increase in their time period of flowering (egBauhinia variegate Linn Prosopis juliflora DC) Similarlyearly flowering was observed for 24 out of the 32 plant speciesstudied in a semiarid grassland by Lesica and Kittelson [17]
The period of maximum activity of bud formation in themonths of spring and the flowering period (started in springand extended to summer and the beginning of autumn) coin-cided with the observations of Pilar and Gabriel [12] Flowerdevelopment dates have been shown to be synchronousamong individuals of the same plant species studied whichseems to be important in increasing the chances of outcrosspollinations as suggested by Ollerton and Lack [42]
These changes in the phenological patterns can resultin adverse effects on insect pollinators as well as herbivores(if the plant species is present in barren or wild areas) thatdepend on those species for food [43 44] The changes inphenological patterns of plantrsquos response to different temper-ature and rainfall availability have been shown to be speciesspecific [45 46] Hence changes in vegetation communityspecies composition might also be responsible for changesin the phenology of the studied plants The present studyreveals that different plants of the same family (Leguminosae)flower at different times during the same year growing at samelocation under similar environmental conditions which canbe attributed to species-specific plant structural architecture
5 Conclusion
The present study reveals high phenological diversity forfour different phenophases among fifteen leguminous plantspecies growing in Amritsar with tropical dry deciduous typeof vegetation This study would be of great help in knowingthe timing of different phenophases of the studied plantswhich can be of interest to people of this region (or wheresimilar climatic conditions prevail) who wish to plan theirgardens and wish to have flowers in their gardens round theyear So they can select plants which flower during differentparts of the year This type of study can provide importantinsights into the biology of the plants concerned and revealphenological pattern of surveyed species This study wouldalso be of great help for comparison over long durationof time For example to see if there is any change in thephenological patterns of the same plant species in next 10 orso years Such comparative study could not be possible at thistime since no relevant literature is available for this region
Acknowledgment
The authors thank Department of Science and Technol-ogy Government of India for INSPIRE Fellowship to MsGurveen Kaur
References
[1] E R Heithaus ldquoThe role of plant-pollinator interactions indetermining community structurerdquo Annals of the MissouriBotanical Garden vol 61 pp 675ndash691 1974
[2] G W Frankie ldquoTropical forest phenology and pollinator plantcoevolutionrdquo inCoevolution of Animals and Plants L E Gilbertand P H Raven Eds pp 192ndash209 University of Texas PressAustin Tex USA 1975
[3] H R Pulliam andM R Brand ldquoThe production and utilizationof seeds in plains grassland of southeastern Arizonardquo Ecologyvol 56 pp 1158ndash1166 1975
[4] P A Opler G W Frankie and H G Baker ldquoRainfall as afactor in the release timing and synchronization of anthesis bytropical trees and shrubsrdquo Journal of Biogeography vol 3 pp231ndash236 1976
[5] J N Thompson and M F Willson ldquoEvolution of temperaturefruitbird interactions phenological strategiesrdquo Evolution vol33 pp 973ndash982 1979
[6] E W Stiles ldquoPatterns of fruit presentation and seed dispersal inbird disseminatedwoodyplants in the eastern deciduous forestrdquoThe American Naturalist vol 116 pp 670ndash688 1980
[7] G F Estabrook J AWinsor A G Stephenson andH F HoweldquoWhen are two phenological patterns differentrdquo BotanicalGazette vol 143 no 3 pp 374ndash378 1982
[8] H S Suresh and R Sukumar ldquoVegetative phenology of tropicalmontane forests in the Nilgiris South Indiardquo Journal of theNational Science Foundation of Sri Lanka vol 39 no 4 pp 333ndash343 2011
[9] M Monasterio and G Sarmiento ldquoPhenological strategies ofplant species in the tropical savanna and the semideciduousforest of the Venezuelan Ilanosrdquo Journal of Biogeography vol3 pp 352ndash356 1976
[10] D Lieberman ldquoSeasonality and phenology in a dry tropicalforest in Ghanardquo Journal of Ecology vol 70 no 3 pp 791ndash8061982
[11] R Milla P Castro-Dıez and G Montserrat-Martı ldquoPhenologyof Mediterranean woody plants from NE Spain synchronyseasonality and relationships among phenophasesrdquo Flora vol205 no 3 pp 190ndash199 2010
[12] C-D Pilar and M-M Gabriel ldquoPhenological pattern of fifteenMediterranean phanaerophytes fromQuercus ilex communitiesof NE-Spainrdquo Plant Ecology vol 139 no 1 pp 103ndash112 1998
[13] G Montserrat-Martı and C Perez-Rontome ldquoFruit growthdynamics and their effects on the phenological pattern of nativePistacia populations in NE Spainrdquo Flora vol 197 no 3 pp 161ndash174 2002
[14] D De Steven D M Windsor and F E Putz ldquoVegetative andreproductive phonologies of a palm assemblage in PanamardquoBiotropica vol 19 pp 342ndash356 1987
[15] S H Bullock and J A Solis-Magallanes ldquoPhenology of canopytrees of a tropical deciduous forest in Mexicordquo Biotropica vol22 pp 22ndash35 1990
[16] L Medway ldquoPhenology of a tropical rain forest in MalayardquoBiological Journal of the Linnean Society vol 4 no 2 pp 117ndash146 1972
[17] P Lesica and PM Kittelson ldquoPrecipitation and temperature areassociated with advanced flowering phenology in a semi-aridgrasslandrdquo Journal of Arid Environments vol 74 pp 1013ndash10172010
10 Journal of Botany
[18] M Shen Y Tang J Chen X Zhu and Y Zheng ldquoInfluencesof temperature and precipitation before the growing seasonon spring phenology in grasslands of the central and easternQinghai-Tibetan Plateaurdquo Agricultural and Forest Meteorologyvol 151 no 12 pp 1711ndash1722 2011
[19] R P Shukla and P S Ramakrishnan ldquoPhenology of trees in asub-tropical humid forest in north-eastern IndiardquoVegetatio vol49 no 2 pp 103ndash109 1982
[20] R P Shukla and P S Ramakrishnan ldquoLeaf dynamics of tropicaltrees related to successional statusrdquoNew Phytologist vol 97 no4 pp 697ndash706 1984
[21] P K Ralhan R K Khanna S P Singh and J S Singh ldquoPheno-logical characteristics of the tree layer of Kumaun Himalayanforestsrdquo Vegetatio vol 60 no 2 pp 91ndash101 1985
[22] Y P S Pangtey R S Rawal N S Bankoti and S S SamantldquoPhenology of high-altitude plants of Kumaun in CentralHimalaya Indiardquo International Journal of Biometeorology vol34 no 2 pp 122ndash127 1990
[23] S N Prasad and M Hegde ldquoPhenology and seasonality in thetropical deciduous forest of Bandipur South IndiardquoProceedingsPlant Sciences vol 96 no 2 pp 121ndash133 1986
[24] N Sivaraj and K V Krishnamurthy ldquoFlowering phenology inthe vegetation of Shervaroys South IndiardquoVegetatio vol 79 no1-2 pp 85ndash88 1988
[25] D M Bhat and K S Murali ldquoPhenology of understorey speciesof tropical moist forest of Western Ghats region of UttaraKannada district in South Indiardquo Current Science vol 81 no7 pp 799ndash805 2001
[26] K P Singh and C P Kushwaha ldquoDiversity of flowering andfruiting phenology of trees in a tropical deciduous forest inIndiardquo Annals of Botany vol 97 no 2 pp 265ndash276 2006
[27] R K Vashisthe N Rawat A K Chaturvedi B P Nautiyal PPrasad and M C Nautiyal ldquoAn exploration on the phenologyof different growth forms of an alpine expanse of north-westHimalaya Indiardquo New York Science Journal vol 2 pp 29ndash422009
[28] V P Upadhyay and P K Mishra ldquoPhenology of mangroves treespecies on Orissa coast Indiardquo Tropical Ecology vol 51 no 2pp 289ndash295 2010
[29] A RKasarkar andDKKulkarni ldquoPhenological studies of fam-ily zingiberaceae with special reference to Alpinia and Zingiberfrom Kolhapur region(MS) Indiardquo Bioscience Discovery vol 2pp 322ndash327 2011
[30] O Bajpai A Kumar A K Mishra N Sahu S K Behera and LB Chaudhary ldquoPhenological study of two dominant tree speciesin tropical moist deciduous forest from the Northern IndiardquoInternational Journal of Botany vol 8 pp 66ndash72 2012
[31] A Lokho and Y Kumar ldquoReproductive phenology and mor-phology analysis of IndianDendrobium Sw (Orchidaceae) fromthe northeast regionrdquo International Journal of Scientific andResearch Publications vol 2 pp 1ndash14 2012
[32] S H G Champion and S K SethA Revised Survey of the ForestTypes of India The manager of Publications Delhi India 1968
[33] R E Sosebee andH HWiebe ldquoEffect of phenological develop-ment on radiophosphorus translocation from leaves in crestedwheatgrassrdquo Oecologia vol 13 no 2 pp 103ndash112 1973
[34] F G Taylor Jr Phenodynamics of Production in a MesicDeciduous Forest USIBP Eastern Deciduous Forest Biome OakRidges National Laboratory Oak Ridge Tenn USA 1972
[35] M Y Nuttonson Wheat-Climate Relationships and the Useof Phenology in Ascertaining the Thermal and Photo-Thermal
Requirements of Wheat Based on Data of North America andSomeThermally Analogous Areas of North America in the SovietUnion and in Finland American Institute for Crop EcologyWashington DC USA 1955
[36] J P Blaisdell ldquoSeasonal development and yield of nativeplants on the upper Snake River plains and their relation tocertain climatic factorsrdquoUSDepartment of Agriculture TechnicalBulletin vol 1190 pp 1ndash68 1958
[37] J Hansen M Sato R Ruedy K Lo D W Lea and MMedina-Elizade ldquoGlobal temperature changerdquo Proceedings ofthe National Academy of Sciences of the United States of Americavol 103 no 39 pp 14288ndash14293 2006
[38] Y Julien and J A Sobrino ldquoGlobal land surface phenologytrends from GIMMS databaserdquo International Journal of RemoteSensing vol 30 no 13 pp 3495ndash3513 2009
[39] A Menzel T H Sparks N Estrella et al ldquoEuropean phenolog-ical response to climate change matches the warming patternrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 12 no 10 pp 1969ndash1976 2006
[40] C Parmesan and G Yohe ldquoA globally coherent fingerprint ofclimate change impacts across natural systemsrdquoNature vol 421no 6918 pp 37ndash42 2003
[41] S Piao J Fang L Zhou P Ciais and B Zhu ldquoVariations insatellite-derived phenology in Chinarsquos temperate vegetationrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 12 no 4 pp 672ndash685 2006
[42] J Ollerton and A J Lack ldquoFlowering phenology an exampleof relaxation of natural selectionrdquo Trends in Ecology andEvolution vol 7 no 8 pp 274ndash276 1992
[43] F Saavedra DW Inouye M V Price and J Harte ldquoChanges inflowering and abundance of Delphinium nuttallianum (Ranun-culaceae) in response to a subalpine climate warming experi-mentrdquo Global Change Biology vol 9 no 6 pp 885ndash894 2003
[44] N C Stenseth and AMysterud ldquoClimate changing phenologyand other life history traits nonlinearity and match-mismatchto the environmentrdquo Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of theUnited States of America vol 99 no 21 pp 13379ndash13381 2002
[45] I Ibanez R B Primack A J Miller-Rushing et al ldquoForecastingphenology under globalwarmingrdquoPhilosophical Transactions ofthe Royal Society B vol 365 no 1555 pp 3247ndash3260 2010
[46] C Parmesan ldquoInfluences of species latitudes and methodolo-gies on estimates of phenological response to global warmingrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 13 no 9 pp 1860ndash1872 2007
Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Anatomy Research International
PeptidesInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom
International Journal of
Volume 2014
Zoology
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Molecular Biology International
GenomicsInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
BioinformaticsAdvances in
Marine BiologyJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Signal TransductionJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
BioMed Research International
Evolutionary BiologyInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Biochemistry Research International
ArchaeaHindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Genetics Research International
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Advances in
Virolog y
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom
Nucleic AcidsJournal of
Volume 2014
Stem CellsInternational
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Enzyme Research
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
International Journal of
Microbiology
6 Journal of Botany
March April May June
Months
JulySe
edFR
FLBu
dsSe
edSe
edFR
FLBu
dsFR
FLBu
dsFR
FLBu
ds
Nameof theplant
Nameof theplant
PPPP
Year
Year
Cassi
a sia
mea
Delo
nix
regi
a Ra
fin (
3)Ca
esal
pini
acea
eCa
esal
pini
acea
eCa
esal
pini
acea
e
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
09
09
09
09
09
09
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
09
March April May June
Months
July
Mim
osac
eae
Park
insp
nia
acul
eata
Lin
n (2
) L
amk
(2)
Acac
ia a
uricu
lifor
mis
A C
unn
(3)
January February August September October November December
January February August September October November December
Seed
091011
Figure 3 Continued
Journal of Botany 7
March April May June
Months
July
Seed
Seed
FRFL
Buds
Seed
FRFL
Buds
FRFL
Buds
FRFL
Buds
Nameof theplant
PP Year
Nameof theplant
PP Year
1011
1011
1011
1011
09
09
09
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1009
March April May June
Months
July
January February August September October November December
August September October November DecemberJanuary February
11
Albi
zia
lebbe
ck B
enth
(2)
Mim
osac
eae
Acac
ia n
ilotic
a D
elile
(2)
Mim
osac
eae
Pros
opis
julifl
ora
DC
(3)
Mim
osac
eae
Calli
andr
a tw
eedi
i Be
nth
(2)
Mim
osac
eae
1011
09
Seed
Figure 3 Continued
8 Journal of Botany
March April May June
Months
July
March April May June
Months
July
Nameof theplant
PP Year
Nameof theplant
PP Year
Seed
Seed
FRFR
FLFL
Buds
Seed
FRFL
Buds
Buds
1011
1011
1011
1011
09
09
09
09
1011
09
1011
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
09
January
January
February
February
August
August
September October November December
September October November December
Abru
s pre
cato
rius
Papi
liona
ceae
Bute
a m
onos
perm
a (L
am)
Kunt
ze (2
)Pa
pilio
nace
aePa
pilio
nace
ae
Lin
n (3
)D
albe
rgia
sisso
o Ro
xb (
4)
Figure 3 Phenological diagrams of fifteen plant species belonging to families caesalpiniaceae mimosaceae and papilionaceae The darkcolored bars indicate the whole period of appearance of different phenophases including buds bud formation FL flowering FR fruiting andseed seed formation for three consecutive years Numbers in parenthesis beside the species names are the number of considered populations(PP phenophase)
Journal of Botany 9
Some other studies have also demonstrated an associationof an advancement in flowering date with climate changeOne study has reported an increase in the mean terrestrialsurface temperature by more than 02∘C per decade eversince 1970 [37] A number of other studies have shown anadvancement of phenological events as a result of increase intemperature [38ndash41] With the increase in the temperaturemost of the species showed earlier flowering time period [39]and even increase in their time period of flowering (egBauhinia variegate Linn Prosopis juliflora DC) Similarlyearly flowering was observed for 24 out of the 32 plant speciesstudied in a semiarid grassland by Lesica and Kittelson [17]
The period of maximum activity of bud formation in themonths of spring and the flowering period (started in springand extended to summer and the beginning of autumn) coin-cided with the observations of Pilar and Gabriel [12] Flowerdevelopment dates have been shown to be synchronousamong individuals of the same plant species studied whichseems to be important in increasing the chances of outcrosspollinations as suggested by Ollerton and Lack [42]
These changes in the phenological patterns can resultin adverse effects on insect pollinators as well as herbivores(if the plant species is present in barren or wild areas) thatdepend on those species for food [43 44] The changes inphenological patterns of plantrsquos response to different temper-ature and rainfall availability have been shown to be speciesspecific [45 46] Hence changes in vegetation communityspecies composition might also be responsible for changesin the phenology of the studied plants The present studyreveals that different plants of the same family (Leguminosae)flower at different times during the same year growing at samelocation under similar environmental conditions which canbe attributed to species-specific plant structural architecture
5 Conclusion
The present study reveals high phenological diversity forfour different phenophases among fifteen leguminous plantspecies growing in Amritsar with tropical dry deciduous typeof vegetation This study would be of great help in knowingthe timing of different phenophases of the studied plantswhich can be of interest to people of this region (or wheresimilar climatic conditions prevail) who wish to plan theirgardens and wish to have flowers in their gardens round theyear So they can select plants which flower during differentparts of the year This type of study can provide importantinsights into the biology of the plants concerned and revealphenological pattern of surveyed species This study wouldalso be of great help for comparison over long durationof time For example to see if there is any change in thephenological patterns of the same plant species in next 10 orso years Such comparative study could not be possible at thistime since no relevant literature is available for this region
Acknowledgment
The authors thank Department of Science and Technol-ogy Government of India for INSPIRE Fellowship to MsGurveen Kaur
References
[1] E R Heithaus ldquoThe role of plant-pollinator interactions indetermining community structurerdquo Annals of the MissouriBotanical Garden vol 61 pp 675ndash691 1974
[2] G W Frankie ldquoTropical forest phenology and pollinator plantcoevolutionrdquo inCoevolution of Animals and Plants L E Gilbertand P H Raven Eds pp 192ndash209 University of Texas PressAustin Tex USA 1975
[3] H R Pulliam andM R Brand ldquoThe production and utilizationof seeds in plains grassland of southeastern Arizonardquo Ecologyvol 56 pp 1158ndash1166 1975
[4] P A Opler G W Frankie and H G Baker ldquoRainfall as afactor in the release timing and synchronization of anthesis bytropical trees and shrubsrdquo Journal of Biogeography vol 3 pp231ndash236 1976
[5] J N Thompson and M F Willson ldquoEvolution of temperaturefruitbird interactions phenological strategiesrdquo Evolution vol33 pp 973ndash982 1979
[6] E W Stiles ldquoPatterns of fruit presentation and seed dispersal inbird disseminatedwoodyplants in the eastern deciduous forestrdquoThe American Naturalist vol 116 pp 670ndash688 1980
[7] G F Estabrook J AWinsor A G Stephenson andH F HoweldquoWhen are two phenological patterns differentrdquo BotanicalGazette vol 143 no 3 pp 374ndash378 1982
[8] H S Suresh and R Sukumar ldquoVegetative phenology of tropicalmontane forests in the Nilgiris South Indiardquo Journal of theNational Science Foundation of Sri Lanka vol 39 no 4 pp 333ndash343 2011
[9] M Monasterio and G Sarmiento ldquoPhenological strategies ofplant species in the tropical savanna and the semideciduousforest of the Venezuelan Ilanosrdquo Journal of Biogeography vol3 pp 352ndash356 1976
[10] D Lieberman ldquoSeasonality and phenology in a dry tropicalforest in Ghanardquo Journal of Ecology vol 70 no 3 pp 791ndash8061982
[11] R Milla P Castro-Dıez and G Montserrat-Martı ldquoPhenologyof Mediterranean woody plants from NE Spain synchronyseasonality and relationships among phenophasesrdquo Flora vol205 no 3 pp 190ndash199 2010
[12] C-D Pilar and M-M Gabriel ldquoPhenological pattern of fifteenMediterranean phanaerophytes fromQuercus ilex communitiesof NE-Spainrdquo Plant Ecology vol 139 no 1 pp 103ndash112 1998
[13] G Montserrat-Martı and C Perez-Rontome ldquoFruit growthdynamics and their effects on the phenological pattern of nativePistacia populations in NE Spainrdquo Flora vol 197 no 3 pp 161ndash174 2002
[14] D De Steven D M Windsor and F E Putz ldquoVegetative andreproductive phonologies of a palm assemblage in PanamardquoBiotropica vol 19 pp 342ndash356 1987
[15] S H Bullock and J A Solis-Magallanes ldquoPhenology of canopytrees of a tropical deciduous forest in Mexicordquo Biotropica vol22 pp 22ndash35 1990
[16] L Medway ldquoPhenology of a tropical rain forest in MalayardquoBiological Journal of the Linnean Society vol 4 no 2 pp 117ndash146 1972
[17] P Lesica and PM Kittelson ldquoPrecipitation and temperature areassociated with advanced flowering phenology in a semi-aridgrasslandrdquo Journal of Arid Environments vol 74 pp 1013ndash10172010
10 Journal of Botany
[18] M Shen Y Tang J Chen X Zhu and Y Zheng ldquoInfluencesof temperature and precipitation before the growing seasonon spring phenology in grasslands of the central and easternQinghai-Tibetan Plateaurdquo Agricultural and Forest Meteorologyvol 151 no 12 pp 1711ndash1722 2011
[19] R P Shukla and P S Ramakrishnan ldquoPhenology of trees in asub-tropical humid forest in north-eastern IndiardquoVegetatio vol49 no 2 pp 103ndash109 1982
[20] R P Shukla and P S Ramakrishnan ldquoLeaf dynamics of tropicaltrees related to successional statusrdquoNew Phytologist vol 97 no4 pp 697ndash706 1984
[21] P K Ralhan R K Khanna S P Singh and J S Singh ldquoPheno-logical characteristics of the tree layer of Kumaun Himalayanforestsrdquo Vegetatio vol 60 no 2 pp 91ndash101 1985
[22] Y P S Pangtey R S Rawal N S Bankoti and S S SamantldquoPhenology of high-altitude plants of Kumaun in CentralHimalaya Indiardquo International Journal of Biometeorology vol34 no 2 pp 122ndash127 1990
[23] S N Prasad and M Hegde ldquoPhenology and seasonality in thetropical deciduous forest of Bandipur South IndiardquoProceedingsPlant Sciences vol 96 no 2 pp 121ndash133 1986
[24] N Sivaraj and K V Krishnamurthy ldquoFlowering phenology inthe vegetation of Shervaroys South IndiardquoVegetatio vol 79 no1-2 pp 85ndash88 1988
[25] D M Bhat and K S Murali ldquoPhenology of understorey speciesof tropical moist forest of Western Ghats region of UttaraKannada district in South Indiardquo Current Science vol 81 no7 pp 799ndash805 2001
[26] K P Singh and C P Kushwaha ldquoDiversity of flowering andfruiting phenology of trees in a tropical deciduous forest inIndiardquo Annals of Botany vol 97 no 2 pp 265ndash276 2006
[27] R K Vashisthe N Rawat A K Chaturvedi B P Nautiyal PPrasad and M C Nautiyal ldquoAn exploration on the phenologyof different growth forms of an alpine expanse of north-westHimalaya Indiardquo New York Science Journal vol 2 pp 29ndash422009
[28] V P Upadhyay and P K Mishra ldquoPhenology of mangroves treespecies on Orissa coast Indiardquo Tropical Ecology vol 51 no 2pp 289ndash295 2010
[29] A RKasarkar andDKKulkarni ldquoPhenological studies of fam-ily zingiberaceae with special reference to Alpinia and Zingiberfrom Kolhapur region(MS) Indiardquo Bioscience Discovery vol 2pp 322ndash327 2011
[30] O Bajpai A Kumar A K Mishra N Sahu S K Behera and LB Chaudhary ldquoPhenological study of two dominant tree speciesin tropical moist deciduous forest from the Northern IndiardquoInternational Journal of Botany vol 8 pp 66ndash72 2012
[31] A Lokho and Y Kumar ldquoReproductive phenology and mor-phology analysis of IndianDendrobium Sw (Orchidaceae) fromthe northeast regionrdquo International Journal of Scientific andResearch Publications vol 2 pp 1ndash14 2012
[32] S H G Champion and S K SethA Revised Survey of the ForestTypes of India The manager of Publications Delhi India 1968
[33] R E Sosebee andH HWiebe ldquoEffect of phenological develop-ment on radiophosphorus translocation from leaves in crestedwheatgrassrdquo Oecologia vol 13 no 2 pp 103ndash112 1973
[34] F G Taylor Jr Phenodynamics of Production in a MesicDeciduous Forest USIBP Eastern Deciduous Forest Biome OakRidges National Laboratory Oak Ridge Tenn USA 1972
[35] M Y Nuttonson Wheat-Climate Relationships and the Useof Phenology in Ascertaining the Thermal and Photo-Thermal
Requirements of Wheat Based on Data of North America andSomeThermally Analogous Areas of North America in the SovietUnion and in Finland American Institute for Crop EcologyWashington DC USA 1955
[36] J P Blaisdell ldquoSeasonal development and yield of nativeplants on the upper Snake River plains and their relation tocertain climatic factorsrdquoUSDepartment of Agriculture TechnicalBulletin vol 1190 pp 1ndash68 1958
[37] J Hansen M Sato R Ruedy K Lo D W Lea and MMedina-Elizade ldquoGlobal temperature changerdquo Proceedings ofthe National Academy of Sciences of the United States of Americavol 103 no 39 pp 14288ndash14293 2006
[38] Y Julien and J A Sobrino ldquoGlobal land surface phenologytrends from GIMMS databaserdquo International Journal of RemoteSensing vol 30 no 13 pp 3495ndash3513 2009
[39] A Menzel T H Sparks N Estrella et al ldquoEuropean phenolog-ical response to climate change matches the warming patternrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 12 no 10 pp 1969ndash1976 2006
[40] C Parmesan and G Yohe ldquoA globally coherent fingerprint ofclimate change impacts across natural systemsrdquoNature vol 421no 6918 pp 37ndash42 2003
[41] S Piao J Fang L Zhou P Ciais and B Zhu ldquoVariations insatellite-derived phenology in Chinarsquos temperate vegetationrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 12 no 4 pp 672ndash685 2006
[42] J Ollerton and A J Lack ldquoFlowering phenology an exampleof relaxation of natural selectionrdquo Trends in Ecology andEvolution vol 7 no 8 pp 274ndash276 1992
[43] F Saavedra DW Inouye M V Price and J Harte ldquoChanges inflowering and abundance of Delphinium nuttallianum (Ranun-culaceae) in response to a subalpine climate warming experi-mentrdquo Global Change Biology vol 9 no 6 pp 885ndash894 2003
[44] N C Stenseth and AMysterud ldquoClimate changing phenologyand other life history traits nonlinearity and match-mismatchto the environmentrdquo Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of theUnited States of America vol 99 no 21 pp 13379ndash13381 2002
[45] I Ibanez R B Primack A J Miller-Rushing et al ldquoForecastingphenology under globalwarmingrdquoPhilosophical Transactions ofthe Royal Society B vol 365 no 1555 pp 3247ndash3260 2010
[46] C Parmesan ldquoInfluences of species latitudes and methodolo-gies on estimates of phenological response to global warmingrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 13 no 9 pp 1860ndash1872 2007
Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Anatomy Research International
PeptidesInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom
International Journal of
Volume 2014
Zoology
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Molecular Biology International
GenomicsInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
BioinformaticsAdvances in
Marine BiologyJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Signal TransductionJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
BioMed Research International
Evolutionary BiologyInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Biochemistry Research International
ArchaeaHindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Genetics Research International
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Advances in
Virolog y
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom
Nucleic AcidsJournal of
Volume 2014
Stem CellsInternational
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Enzyme Research
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
International Journal of
Microbiology
Journal of Botany 7
March April May June
Months
July
Seed
Seed
FRFL
Buds
Seed
FRFL
Buds
FRFL
Buds
FRFL
Buds
Nameof theplant
PP Year
Nameof theplant
PP Year
1011
1011
1011
1011
09
09
09
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1009
March April May June
Months
July
January February August September October November December
August September October November DecemberJanuary February
11
Albi
zia
lebbe
ck B
enth
(2)
Mim
osac
eae
Acac
ia n
ilotic
a D
elile
(2)
Mim
osac
eae
Pros
opis
julifl
ora
DC
(3)
Mim
osac
eae
Calli
andr
a tw
eedi
i Be
nth
(2)
Mim
osac
eae
1011
09
Seed
Figure 3 Continued
8 Journal of Botany
March April May June
Months
July
March April May June
Months
July
Nameof theplant
PP Year
Nameof theplant
PP Year
Seed
Seed
FRFR
FLFL
Buds
Seed
FRFL
Buds
Buds
1011
1011
1011
1011
09
09
09
09
1011
09
1011
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
09
January
January
February
February
August
August
September October November December
September October November December
Abru
s pre
cato
rius
Papi
liona
ceae
Bute
a m
onos
perm
a (L
am)
Kunt
ze (2
)Pa
pilio
nace
aePa
pilio
nace
ae
Lin
n (3
)D
albe
rgia
sisso
o Ro
xb (
4)
Figure 3 Phenological diagrams of fifteen plant species belonging to families caesalpiniaceae mimosaceae and papilionaceae The darkcolored bars indicate the whole period of appearance of different phenophases including buds bud formation FL flowering FR fruiting andseed seed formation for three consecutive years Numbers in parenthesis beside the species names are the number of considered populations(PP phenophase)
Journal of Botany 9
Some other studies have also demonstrated an associationof an advancement in flowering date with climate changeOne study has reported an increase in the mean terrestrialsurface temperature by more than 02∘C per decade eversince 1970 [37] A number of other studies have shown anadvancement of phenological events as a result of increase intemperature [38ndash41] With the increase in the temperaturemost of the species showed earlier flowering time period [39]and even increase in their time period of flowering (egBauhinia variegate Linn Prosopis juliflora DC) Similarlyearly flowering was observed for 24 out of the 32 plant speciesstudied in a semiarid grassland by Lesica and Kittelson [17]
The period of maximum activity of bud formation in themonths of spring and the flowering period (started in springand extended to summer and the beginning of autumn) coin-cided with the observations of Pilar and Gabriel [12] Flowerdevelopment dates have been shown to be synchronousamong individuals of the same plant species studied whichseems to be important in increasing the chances of outcrosspollinations as suggested by Ollerton and Lack [42]
These changes in the phenological patterns can resultin adverse effects on insect pollinators as well as herbivores(if the plant species is present in barren or wild areas) thatdepend on those species for food [43 44] The changes inphenological patterns of plantrsquos response to different temper-ature and rainfall availability have been shown to be speciesspecific [45 46] Hence changes in vegetation communityspecies composition might also be responsible for changesin the phenology of the studied plants The present studyreveals that different plants of the same family (Leguminosae)flower at different times during the same year growing at samelocation under similar environmental conditions which canbe attributed to species-specific plant structural architecture
5 Conclusion
The present study reveals high phenological diversity forfour different phenophases among fifteen leguminous plantspecies growing in Amritsar with tropical dry deciduous typeof vegetation This study would be of great help in knowingthe timing of different phenophases of the studied plantswhich can be of interest to people of this region (or wheresimilar climatic conditions prevail) who wish to plan theirgardens and wish to have flowers in their gardens round theyear So they can select plants which flower during differentparts of the year This type of study can provide importantinsights into the biology of the plants concerned and revealphenological pattern of surveyed species This study wouldalso be of great help for comparison over long durationof time For example to see if there is any change in thephenological patterns of the same plant species in next 10 orso years Such comparative study could not be possible at thistime since no relevant literature is available for this region
Acknowledgment
The authors thank Department of Science and Technol-ogy Government of India for INSPIRE Fellowship to MsGurveen Kaur
References
[1] E R Heithaus ldquoThe role of plant-pollinator interactions indetermining community structurerdquo Annals of the MissouriBotanical Garden vol 61 pp 675ndash691 1974
[2] G W Frankie ldquoTropical forest phenology and pollinator plantcoevolutionrdquo inCoevolution of Animals and Plants L E Gilbertand P H Raven Eds pp 192ndash209 University of Texas PressAustin Tex USA 1975
[3] H R Pulliam andM R Brand ldquoThe production and utilizationof seeds in plains grassland of southeastern Arizonardquo Ecologyvol 56 pp 1158ndash1166 1975
[4] P A Opler G W Frankie and H G Baker ldquoRainfall as afactor in the release timing and synchronization of anthesis bytropical trees and shrubsrdquo Journal of Biogeography vol 3 pp231ndash236 1976
[5] J N Thompson and M F Willson ldquoEvolution of temperaturefruitbird interactions phenological strategiesrdquo Evolution vol33 pp 973ndash982 1979
[6] E W Stiles ldquoPatterns of fruit presentation and seed dispersal inbird disseminatedwoodyplants in the eastern deciduous forestrdquoThe American Naturalist vol 116 pp 670ndash688 1980
[7] G F Estabrook J AWinsor A G Stephenson andH F HoweldquoWhen are two phenological patterns differentrdquo BotanicalGazette vol 143 no 3 pp 374ndash378 1982
[8] H S Suresh and R Sukumar ldquoVegetative phenology of tropicalmontane forests in the Nilgiris South Indiardquo Journal of theNational Science Foundation of Sri Lanka vol 39 no 4 pp 333ndash343 2011
[9] M Monasterio and G Sarmiento ldquoPhenological strategies ofplant species in the tropical savanna and the semideciduousforest of the Venezuelan Ilanosrdquo Journal of Biogeography vol3 pp 352ndash356 1976
[10] D Lieberman ldquoSeasonality and phenology in a dry tropicalforest in Ghanardquo Journal of Ecology vol 70 no 3 pp 791ndash8061982
[11] R Milla P Castro-Dıez and G Montserrat-Martı ldquoPhenologyof Mediterranean woody plants from NE Spain synchronyseasonality and relationships among phenophasesrdquo Flora vol205 no 3 pp 190ndash199 2010
[12] C-D Pilar and M-M Gabriel ldquoPhenological pattern of fifteenMediterranean phanaerophytes fromQuercus ilex communitiesof NE-Spainrdquo Plant Ecology vol 139 no 1 pp 103ndash112 1998
[13] G Montserrat-Martı and C Perez-Rontome ldquoFruit growthdynamics and their effects on the phenological pattern of nativePistacia populations in NE Spainrdquo Flora vol 197 no 3 pp 161ndash174 2002
[14] D De Steven D M Windsor and F E Putz ldquoVegetative andreproductive phonologies of a palm assemblage in PanamardquoBiotropica vol 19 pp 342ndash356 1987
[15] S H Bullock and J A Solis-Magallanes ldquoPhenology of canopytrees of a tropical deciduous forest in Mexicordquo Biotropica vol22 pp 22ndash35 1990
[16] L Medway ldquoPhenology of a tropical rain forest in MalayardquoBiological Journal of the Linnean Society vol 4 no 2 pp 117ndash146 1972
[17] P Lesica and PM Kittelson ldquoPrecipitation and temperature areassociated with advanced flowering phenology in a semi-aridgrasslandrdquo Journal of Arid Environments vol 74 pp 1013ndash10172010
10 Journal of Botany
[18] M Shen Y Tang J Chen X Zhu and Y Zheng ldquoInfluencesof temperature and precipitation before the growing seasonon spring phenology in grasslands of the central and easternQinghai-Tibetan Plateaurdquo Agricultural and Forest Meteorologyvol 151 no 12 pp 1711ndash1722 2011
[19] R P Shukla and P S Ramakrishnan ldquoPhenology of trees in asub-tropical humid forest in north-eastern IndiardquoVegetatio vol49 no 2 pp 103ndash109 1982
[20] R P Shukla and P S Ramakrishnan ldquoLeaf dynamics of tropicaltrees related to successional statusrdquoNew Phytologist vol 97 no4 pp 697ndash706 1984
[21] P K Ralhan R K Khanna S P Singh and J S Singh ldquoPheno-logical characteristics of the tree layer of Kumaun Himalayanforestsrdquo Vegetatio vol 60 no 2 pp 91ndash101 1985
[22] Y P S Pangtey R S Rawal N S Bankoti and S S SamantldquoPhenology of high-altitude plants of Kumaun in CentralHimalaya Indiardquo International Journal of Biometeorology vol34 no 2 pp 122ndash127 1990
[23] S N Prasad and M Hegde ldquoPhenology and seasonality in thetropical deciduous forest of Bandipur South IndiardquoProceedingsPlant Sciences vol 96 no 2 pp 121ndash133 1986
[24] N Sivaraj and K V Krishnamurthy ldquoFlowering phenology inthe vegetation of Shervaroys South IndiardquoVegetatio vol 79 no1-2 pp 85ndash88 1988
[25] D M Bhat and K S Murali ldquoPhenology of understorey speciesof tropical moist forest of Western Ghats region of UttaraKannada district in South Indiardquo Current Science vol 81 no7 pp 799ndash805 2001
[26] K P Singh and C P Kushwaha ldquoDiversity of flowering andfruiting phenology of trees in a tropical deciduous forest inIndiardquo Annals of Botany vol 97 no 2 pp 265ndash276 2006
[27] R K Vashisthe N Rawat A K Chaturvedi B P Nautiyal PPrasad and M C Nautiyal ldquoAn exploration on the phenologyof different growth forms of an alpine expanse of north-westHimalaya Indiardquo New York Science Journal vol 2 pp 29ndash422009
[28] V P Upadhyay and P K Mishra ldquoPhenology of mangroves treespecies on Orissa coast Indiardquo Tropical Ecology vol 51 no 2pp 289ndash295 2010
[29] A RKasarkar andDKKulkarni ldquoPhenological studies of fam-ily zingiberaceae with special reference to Alpinia and Zingiberfrom Kolhapur region(MS) Indiardquo Bioscience Discovery vol 2pp 322ndash327 2011
[30] O Bajpai A Kumar A K Mishra N Sahu S K Behera and LB Chaudhary ldquoPhenological study of two dominant tree speciesin tropical moist deciduous forest from the Northern IndiardquoInternational Journal of Botany vol 8 pp 66ndash72 2012
[31] A Lokho and Y Kumar ldquoReproductive phenology and mor-phology analysis of IndianDendrobium Sw (Orchidaceae) fromthe northeast regionrdquo International Journal of Scientific andResearch Publications vol 2 pp 1ndash14 2012
[32] S H G Champion and S K SethA Revised Survey of the ForestTypes of India The manager of Publications Delhi India 1968
[33] R E Sosebee andH HWiebe ldquoEffect of phenological develop-ment on radiophosphorus translocation from leaves in crestedwheatgrassrdquo Oecologia vol 13 no 2 pp 103ndash112 1973
[34] F G Taylor Jr Phenodynamics of Production in a MesicDeciduous Forest USIBP Eastern Deciduous Forest Biome OakRidges National Laboratory Oak Ridge Tenn USA 1972
[35] M Y Nuttonson Wheat-Climate Relationships and the Useof Phenology in Ascertaining the Thermal and Photo-Thermal
Requirements of Wheat Based on Data of North America andSomeThermally Analogous Areas of North America in the SovietUnion and in Finland American Institute for Crop EcologyWashington DC USA 1955
[36] J P Blaisdell ldquoSeasonal development and yield of nativeplants on the upper Snake River plains and their relation tocertain climatic factorsrdquoUSDepartment of Agriculture TechnicalBulletin vol 1190 pp 1ndash68 1958
[37] J Hansen M Sato R Ruedy K Lo D W Lea and MMedina-Elizade ldquoGlobal temperature changerdquo Proceedings ofthe National Academy of Sciences of the United States of Americavol 103 no 39 pp 14288ndash14293 2006
[38] Y Julien and J A Sobrino ldquoGlobal land surface phenologytrends from GIMMS databaserdquo International Journal of RemoteSensing vol 30 no 13 pp 3495ndash3513 2009
[39] A Menzel T H Sparks N Estrella et al ldquoEuropean phenolog-ical response to climate change matches the warming patternrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 12 no 10 pp 1969ndash1976 2006
[40] C Parmesan and G Yohe ldquoA globally coherent fingerprint ofclimate change impacts across natural systemsrdquoNature vol 421no 6918 pp 37ndash42 2003
[41] S Piao J Fang L Zhou P Ciais and B Zhu ldquoVariations insatellite-derived phenology in Chinarsquos temperate vegetationrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 12 no 4 pp 672ndash685 2006
[42] J Ollerton and A J Lack ldquoFlowering phenology an exampleof relaxation of natural selectionrdquo Trends in Ecology andEvolution vol 7 no 8 pp 274ndash276 1992
[43] F Saavedra DW Inouye M V Price and J Harte ldquoChanges inflowering and abundance of Delphinium nuttallianum (Ranun-culaceae) in response to a subalpine climate warming experi-mentrdquo Global Change Biology vol 9 no 6 pp 885ndash894 2003
[44] N C Stenseth and AMysterud ldquoClimate changing phenologyand other life history traits nonlinearity and match-mismatchto the environmentrdquo Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of theUnited States of America vol 99 no 21 pp 13379ndash13381 2002
[45] I Ibanez R B Primack A J Miller-Rushing et al ldquoForecastingphenology under globalwarmingrdquoPhilosophical Transactions ofthe Royal Society B vol 365 no 1555 pp 3247ndash3260 2010
[46] C Parmesan ldquoInfluences of species latitudes and methodolo-gies on estimates of phenological response to global warmingrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 13 no 9 pp 1860ndash1872 2007
Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Anatomy Research International
PeptidesInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom
International Journal of
Volume 2014
Zoology
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Molecular Biology International
GenomicsInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
BioinformaticsAdvances in
Marine BiologyJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Signal TransductionJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
BioMed Research International
Evolutionary BiologyInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Biochemistry Research International
ArchaeaHindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Genetics Research International
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Advances in
Virolog y
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom
Nucleic AcidsJournal of
Volume 2014
Stem CellsInternational
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Enzyme Research
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
International Journal of
Microbiology
8 Journal of Botany
March April May June
Months
July
March April May June
Months
July
Nameof theplant
PP Year
Nameof theplant
PP Year
Seed
Seed
FRFR
FLFL
Buds
Seed
FRFL
Buds
Buds
1011
1011
1011
1011
09
09
09
09
1011
09
1011
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
1011
09
09
January
January
February
February
August
August
September October November December
September October November December
Abru
s pre
cato
rius
Papi
liona
ceae
Bute
a m
onos
perm
a (L
am)
Kunt
ze (2
)Pa
pilio
nace
aePa
pilio
nace
ae
Lin
n (3
)D
albe
rgia
sisso
o Ro
xb (
4)
Figure 3 Phenological diagrams of fifteen plant species belonging to families caesalpiniaceae mimosaceae and papilionaceae The darkcolored bars indicate the whole period of appearance of different phenophases including buds bud formation FL flowering FR fruiting andseed seed formation for three consecutive years Numbers in parenthesis beside the species names are the number of considered populations(PP phenophase)
Journal of Botany 9
Some other studies have also demonstrated an associationof an advancement in flowering date with climate changeOne study has reported an increase in the mean terrestrialsurface temperature by more than 02∘C per decade eversince 1970 [37] A number of other studies have shown anadvancement of phenological events as a result of increase intemperature [38ndash41] With the increase in the temperaturemost of the species showed earlier flowering time period [39]and even increase in their time period of flowering (egBauhinia variegate Linn Prosopis juliflora DC) Similarlyearly flowering was observed for 24 out of the 32 plant speciesstudied in a semiarid grassland by Lesica and Kittelson [17]
The period of maximum activity of bud formation in themonths of spring and the flowering period (started in springand extended to summer and the beginning of autumn) coin-cided with the observations of Pilar and Gabriel [12] Flowerdevelopment dates have been shown to be synchronousamong individuals of the same plant species studied whichseems to be important in increasing the chances of outcrosspollinations as suggested by Ollerton and Lack [42]
These changes in the phenological patterns can resultin adverse effects on insect pollinators as well as herbivores(if the plant species is present in barren or wild areas) thatdepend on those species for food [43 44] The changes inphenological patterns of plantrsquos response to different temper-ature and rainfall availability have been shown to be speciesspecific [45 46] Hence changes in vegetation communityspecies composition might also be responsible for changesin the phenology of the studied plants The present studyreveals that different plants of the same family (Leguminosae)flower at different times during the same year growing at samelocation under similar environmental conditions which canbe attributed to species-specific plant structural architecture
5 Conclusion
The present study reveals high phenological diversity forfour different phenophases among fifteen leguminous plantspecies growing in Amritsar with tropical dry deciduous typeof vegetation This study would be of great help in knowingthe timing of different phenophases of the studied plantswhich can be of interest to people of this region (or wheresimilar climatic conditions prevail) who wish to plan theirgardens and wish to have flowers in their gardens round theyear So they can select plants which flower during differentparts of the year This type of study can provide importantinsights into the biology of the plants concerned and revealphenological pattern of surveyed species This study wouldalso be of great help for comparison over long durationof time For example to see if there is any change in thephenological patterns of the same plant species in next 10 orso years Such comparative study could not be possible at thistime since no relevant literature is available for this region
Acknowledgment
The authors thank Department of Science and Technol-ogy Government of India for INSPIRE Fellowship to MsGurveen Kaur
References
[1] E R Heithaus ldquoThe role of plant-pollinator interactions indetermining community structurerdquo Annals of the MissouriBotanical Garden vol 61 pp 675ndash691 1974
[2] G W Frankie ldquoTropical forest phenology and pollinator plantcoevolutionrdquo inCoevolution of Animals and Plants L E Gilbertand P H Raven Eds pp 192ndash209 University of Texas PressAustin Tex USA 1975
[3] H R Pulliam andM R Brand ldquoThe production and utilizationof seeds in plains grassland of southeastern Arizonardquo Ecologyvol 56 pp 1158ndash1166 1975
[4] P A Opler G W Frankie and H G Baker ldquoRainfall as afactor in the release timing and synchronization of anthesis bytropical trees and shrubsrdquo Journal of Biogeography vol 3 pp231ndash236 1976
[5] J N Thompson and M F Willson ldquoEvolution of temperaturefruitbird interactions phenological strategiesrdquo Evolution vol33 pp 973ndash982 1979
[6] E W Stiles ldquoPatterns of fruit presentation and seed dispersal inbird disseminatedwoodyplants in the eastern deciduous forestrdquoThe American Naturalist vol 116 pp 670ndash688 1980
[7] G F Estabrook J AWinsor A G Stephenson andH F HoweldquoWhen are two phenological patterns differentrdquo BotanicalGazette vol 143 no 3 pp 374ndash378 1982
[8] H S Suresh and R Sukumar ldquoVegetative phenology of tropicalmontane forests in the Nilgiris South Indiardquo Journal of theNational Science Foundation of Sri Lanka vol 39 no 4 pp 333ndash343 2011
[9] M Monasterio and G Sarmiento ldquoPhenological strategies ofplant species in the tropical savanna and the semideciduousforest of the Venezuelan Ilanosrdquo Journal of Biogeography vol3 pp 352ndash356 1976
[10] D Lieberman ldquoSeasonality and phenology in a dry tropicalforest in Ghanardquo Journal of Ecology vol 70 no 3 pp 791ndash8061982
[11] R Milla P Castro-Dıez and G Montserrat-Martı ldquoPhenologyof Mediterranean woody plants from NE Spain synchronyseasonality and relationships among phenophasesrdquo Flora vol205 no 3 pp 190ndash199 2010
[12] C-D Pilar and M-M Gabriel ldquoPhenological pattern of fifteenMediterranean phanaerophytes fromQuercus ilex communitiesof NE-Spainrdquo Plant Ecology vol 139 no 1 pp 103ndash112 1998
[13] G Montserrat-Martı and C Perez-Rontome ldquoFruit growthdynamics and their effects on the phenological pattern of nativePistacia populations in NE Spainrdquo Flora vol 197 no 3 pp 161ndash174 2002
[14] D De Steven D M Windsor and F E Putz ldquoVegetative andreproductive phonologies of a palm assemblage in PanamardquoBiotropica vol 19 pp 342ndash356 1987
[15] S H Bullock and J A Solis-Magallanes ldquoPhenology of canopytrees of a tropical deciduous forest in Mexicordquo Biotropica vol22 pp 22ndash35 1990
[16] L Medway ldquoPhenology of a tropical rain forest in MalayardquoBiological Journal of the Linnean Society vol 4 no 2 pp 117ndash146 1972
[17] P Lesica and PM Kittelson ldquoPrecipitation and temperature areassociated with advanced flowering phenology in a semi-aridgrasslandrdquo Journal of Arid Environments vol 74 pp 1013ndash10172010
10 Journal of Botany
[18] M Shen Y Tang J Chen X Zhu and Y Zheng ldquoInfluencesof temperature and precipitation before the growing seasonon spring phenology in grasslands of the central and easternQinghai-Tibetan Plateaurdquo Agricultural and Forest Meteorologyvol 151 no 12 pp 1711ndash1722 2011
[19] R P Shukla and P S Ramakrishnan ldquoPhenology of trees in asub-tropical humid forest in north-eastern IndiardquoVegetatio vol49 no 2 pp 103ndash109 1982
[20] R P Shukla and P S Ramakrishnan ldquoLeaf dynamics of tropicaltrees related to successional statusrdquoNew Phytologist vol 97 no4 pp 697ndash706 1984
[21] P K Ralhan R K Khanna S P Singh and J S Singh ldquoPheno-logical characteristics of the tree layer of Kumaun Himalayanforestsrdquo Vegetatio vol 60 no 2 pp 91ndash101 1985
[22] Y P S Pangtey R S Rawal N S Bankoti and S S SamantldquoPhenology of high-altitude plants of Kumaun in CentralHimalaya Indiardquo International Journal of Biometeorology vol34 no 2 pp 122ndash127 1990
[23] S N Prasad and M Hegde ldquoPhenology and seasonality in thetropical deciduous forest of Bandipur South IndiardquoProceedingsPlant Sciences vol 96 no 2 pp 121ndash133 1986
[24] N Sivaraj and K V Krishnamurthy ldquoFlowering phenology inthe vegetation of Shervaroys South IndiardquoVegetatio vol 79 no1-2 pp 85ndash88 1988
[25] D M Bhat and K S Murali ldquoPhenology of understorey speciesof tropical moist forest of Western Ghats region of UttaraKannada district in South Indiardquo Current Science vol 81 no7 pp 799ndash805 2001
[26] K P Singh and C P Kushwaha ldquoDiversity of flowering andfruiting phenology of trees in a tropical deciduous forest inIndiardquo Annals of Botany vol 97 no 2 pp 265ndash276 2006
[27] R K Vashisthe N Rawat A K Chaturvedi B P Nautiyal PPrasad and M C Nautiyal ldquoAn exploration on the phenologyof different growth forms of an alpine expanse of north-westHimalaya Indiardquo New York Science Journal vol 2 pp 29ndash422009
[28] V P Upadhyay and P K Mishra ldquoPhenology of mangroves treespecies on Orissa coast Indiardquo Tropical Ecology vol 51 no 2pp 289ndash295 2010
[29] A RKasarkar andDKKulkarni ldquoPhenological studies of fam-ily zingiberaceae with special reference to Alpinia and Zingiberfrom Kolhapur region(MS) Indiardquo Bioscience Discovery vol 2pp 322ndash327 2011
[30] O Bajpai A Kumar A K Mishra N Sahu S K Behera and LB Chaudhary ldquoPhenological study of two dominant tree speciesin tropical moist deciduous forest from the Northern IndiardquoInternational Journal of Botany vol 8 pp 66ndash72 2012
[31] A Lokho and Y Kumar ldquoReproductive phenology and mor-phology analysis of IndianDendrobium Sw (Orchidaceae) fromthe northeast regionrdquo International Journal of Scientific andResearch Publications vol 2 pp 1ndash14 2012
[32] S H G Champion and S K SethA Revised Survey of the ForestTypes of India The manager of Publications Delhi India 1968
[33] R E Sosebee andH HWiebe ldquoEffect of phenological develop-ment on radiophosphorus translocation from leaves in crestedwheatgrassrdquo Oecologia vol 13 no 2 pp 103ndash112 1973
[34] F G Taylor Jr Phenodynamics of Production in a MesicDeciduous Forest USIBP Eastern Deciduous Forest Biome OakRidges National Laboratory Oak Ridge Tenn USA 1972
[35] M Y Nuttonson Wheat-Climate Relationships and the Useof Phenology in Ascertaining the Thermal and Photo-Thermal
Requirements of Wheat Based on Data of North America andSomeThermally Analogous Areas of North America in the SovietUnion and in Finland American Institute for Crop EcologyWashington DC USA 1955
[36] J P Blaisdell ldquoSeasonal development and yield of nativeplants on the upper Snake River plains and their relation tocertain climatic factorsrdquoUSDepartment of Agriculture TechnicalBulletin vol 1190 pp 1ndash68 1958
[37] J Hansen M Sato R Ruedy K Lo D W Lea and MMedina-Elizade ldquoGlobal temperature changerdquo Proceedings ofthe National Academy of Sciences of the United States of Americavol 103 no 39 pp 14288ndash14293 2006
[38] Y Julien and J A Sobrino ldquoGlobal land surface phenologytrends from GIMMS databaserdquo International Journal of RemoteSensing vol 30 no 13 pp 3495ndash3513 2009
[39] A Menzel T H Sparks N Estrella et al ldquoEuropean phenolog-ical response to climate change matches the warming patternrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 12 no 10 pp 1969ndash1976 2006
[40] C Parmesan and G Yohe ldquoA globally coherent fingerprint ofclimate change impacts across natural systemsrdquoNature vol 421no 6918 pp 37ndash42 2003
[41] S Piao J Fang L Zhou P Ciais and B Zhu ldquoVariations insatellite-derived phenology in Chinarsquos temperate vegetationrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 12 no 4 pp 672ndash685 2006
[42] J Ollerton and A J Lack ldquoFlowering phenology an exampleof relaxation of natural selectionrdquo Trends in Ecology andEvolution vol 7 no 8 pp 274ndash276 1992
[43] F Saavedra DW Inouye M V Price and J Harte ldquoChanges inflowering and abundance of Delphinium nuttallianum (Ranun-culaceae) in response to a subalpine climate warming experi-mentrdquo Global Change Biology vol 9 no 6 pp 885ndash894 2003
[44] N C Stenseth and AMysterud ldquoClimate changing phenologyand other life history traits nonlinearity and match-mismatchto the environmentrdquo Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of theUnited States of America vol 99 no 21 pp 13379ndash13381 2002
[45] I Ibanez R B Primack A J Miller-Rushing et al ldquoForecastingphenology under globalwarmingrdquoPhilosophical Transactions ofthe Royal Society B vol 365 no 1555 pp 3247ndash3260 2010
[46] C Parmesan ldquoInfluences of species latitudes and methodolo-gies on estimates of phenological response to global warmingrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 13 no 9 pp 1860ndash1872 2007
Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Anatomy Research International
PeptidesInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom
International Journal of
Volume 2014
Zoology
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Molecular Biology International
GenomicsInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
BioinformaticsAdvances in
Marine BiologyJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Signal TransductionJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
BioMed Research International
Evolutionary BiologyInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Biochemistry Research International
ArchaeaHindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Genetics Research International
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Advances in
Virolog y
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom
Nucleic AcidsJournal of
Volume 2014
Stem CellsInternational
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Enzyme Research
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
International Journal of
Microbiology
Journal of Botany 9
Some other studies have also demonstrated an associationof an advancement in flowering date with climate changeOne study has reported an increase in the mean terrestrialsurface temperature by more than 02∘C per decade eversince 1970 [37] A number of other studies have shown anadvancement of phenological events as a result of increase intemperature [38ndash41] With the increase in the temperaturemost of the species showed earlier flowering time period [39]and even increase in their time period of flowering (egBauhinia variegate Linn Prosopis juliflora DC) Similarlyearly flowering was observed for 24 out of the 32 plant speciesstudied in a semiarid grassland by Lesica and Kittelson [17]
The period of maximum activity of bud formation in themonths of spring and the flowering period (started in springand extended to summer and the beginning of autumn) coin-cided with the observations of Pilar and Gabriel [12] Flowerdevelopment dates have been shown to be synchronousamong individuals of the same plant species studied whichseems to be important in increasing the chances of outcrosspollinations as suggested by Ollerton and Lack [42]
These changes in the phenological patterns can resultin adverse effects on insect pollinators as well as herbivores(if the plant species is present in barren or wild areas) thatdepend on those species for food [43 44] The changes inphenological patterns of plantrsquos response to different temper-ature and rainfall availability have been shown to be speciesspecific [45 46] Hence changes in vegetation communityspecies composition might also be responsible for changesin the phenology of the studied plants The present studyreveals that different plants of the same family (Leguminosae)flower at different times during the same year growing at samelocation under similar environmental conditions which canbe attributed to species-specific plant structural architecture
5 Conclusion
The present study reveals high phenological diversity forfour different phenophases among fifteen leguminous plantspecies growing in Amritsar with tropical dry deciduous typeof vegetation This study would be of great help in knowingthe timing of different phenophases of the studied plantswhich can be of interest to people of this region (or wheresimilar climatic conditions prevail) who wish to plan theirgardens and wish to have flowers in their gardens round theyear So they can select plants which flower during differentparts of the year This type of study can provide importantinsights into the biology of the plants concerned and revealphenological pattern of surveyed species This study wouldalso be of great help for comparison over long durationof time For example to see if there is any change in thephenological patterns of the same plant species in next 10 orso years Such comparative study could not be possible at thistime since no relevant literature is available for this region
Acknowledgment
The authors thank Department of Science and Technol-ogy Government of India for INSPIRE Fellowship to MsGurveen Kaur
References
[1] E R Heithaus ldquoThe role of plant-pollinator interactions indetermining community structurerdquo Annals of the MissouriBotanical Garden vol 61 pp 675ndash691 1974
[2] G W Frankie ldquoTropical forest phenology and pollinator plantcoevolutionrdquo inCoevolution of Animals and Plants L E Gilbertand P H Raven Eds pp 192ndash209 University of Texas PressAustin Tex USA 1975
[3] H R Pulliam andM R Brand ldquoThe production and utilizationof seeds in plains grassland of southeastern Arizonardquo Ecologyvol 56 pp 1158ndash1166 1975
[4] P A Opler G W Frankie and H G Baker ldquoRainfall as afactor in the release timing and synchronization of anthesis bytropical trees and shrubsrdquo Journal of Biogeography vol 3 pp231ndash236 1976
[5] J N Thompson and M F Willson ldquoEvolution of temperaturefruitbird interactions phenological strategiesrdquo Evolution vol33 pp 973ndash982 1979
[6] E W Stiles ldquoPatterns of fruit presentation and seed dispersal inbird disseminatedwoodyplants in the eastern deciduous forestrdquoThe American Naturalist vol 116 pp 670ndash688 1980
[7] G F Estabrook J AWinsor A G Stephenson andH F HoweldquoWhen are two phenological patterns differentrdquo BotanicalGazette vol 143 no 3 pp 374ndash378 1982
[8] H S Suresh and R Sukumar ldquoVegetative phenology of tropicalmontane forests in the Nilgiris South Indiardquo Journal of theNational Science Foundation of Sri Lanka vol 39 no 4 pp 333ndash343 2011
[9] M Monasterio and G Sarmiento ldquoPhenological strategies ofplant species in the tropical savanna and the semideciduousforest of the Venezuelan Ilanosrdquo Journal of Biogeography vol3 pp 352ndash356 1976
[10] D Lieberman ldquoSeasonality and phenology in a dry tropicalforest in Ghanardquo Journal of Ecology vol 70 no 3 pp 791ndash8061982
[11] R Milla P Castro-Dıez and G Montserrat-Martı ldquoPhenologyof Mediterranean woody plants from NE Spain synchronyseasonality and relationships among phenophasesrdquo Flora vol205 no 3 pp 190ndash199 2010
[12] C-D Pilar and M-M Gabriel ldquoPhenological pattern of fifteenMediterranean phanaerophytes fromQuercus ilex communitiesof NE-Spainrdquo Plant Ecology vol 139 no 1 pp 103ndash112 1998
[13] G Montserrat-Martı and C Perez-Rontome ldquoFruit growthdynamics and their effects on the phenological pattern of nativePistacia populations in NE Spainrdquo Flora vol 197 no 3 pp 161ndash174 2002
[14] D De Steven D M Windsor and F E Putz ldquoVegetative andreproductive phonologies of a palm assemblage in PanamardquoBiotropica vol 19 pp 342ndash356 1987
[15] S H Bullock and J A Solis-Magallanes ldquoPhenology of canopytrees of a tropical deciduous forest in Mexicordquo Biotropica vol22 pp 22ndash35 1990
[16] L Medway ldquoPhenology of a tropical rain forest in MalayardquoBiological Journal of the Linnean Society vol 4 no 2 pp 117ndash146 1972
[17] P Lesica and PM Kittelson ldquoPrecipitation and temperature areassociated with advanced flowering phenology in a semi-aridgrasslandrdquo Journal of Arid Environments vol 74 pp 1013ndash10172010
10 Journal of Botany
[18] M Shen Y Tang J Chen X Zhu and Y Zheng ldquoInfluencesof temperature and precipitation before the growing seasonon spring phenology in grasslands of the central and easternQinghai-Tibetan Plateaurdquo Agricultural and Forest Meteorologyvol 151 no 12 pp 1711ndash1722 2011
[19] R P Shukla and P S Ramakrishnan ldquoPhenology of trees in asub-tropical humid forest in north-eastern IndiardquoVegetatio vol49 no 2 pp 103ndash109 1982
[20] R P Shukla and P S Ramakrishnan ldquoLeaf dynamics of tropicaltrees related to successional statusrdquoNew Phytologist vol 97 no4 pp 697ndash706 1984
[21] P K Ralhan R K Khanna S P Singh and J S Singh ldquoPheno-logical characteristics of the tree layer of Kumaun Himalayanforestsrdquo Vegetatio vol 60 no 2 pp 91ndash101 1985
[22] Y P S Pangtey R S Rawal N S Bankoti and S S SamantldquoPhenology of high-altitude plants of Kumaun in CentralHimalaya Indiardquo International Journal of Biometeorology vol34 no 2 pp 122ndash127 1990
[23] S N Prasad and M Hegde ldquoPhenology and seasonality in thetropical deciduous forest of Bandipur South IndiardquoProceedingsPlant Sciences vol 96 no 2 pp 121ndash133 1986
[24] N Sivaraj and K V Krishnamurthy ldquoFlowering phenology inthe vegetation of Shervaroys South IndiardquoVegetatio vol 79 no1-2 pp 85ndash88 1988
[25] D M Bhat and K S Murali ldquoPhenology of understorey speciesof tropical moist forest of Western Ghats region of UttaraKannada district in South Indiardquo Current Science vol 81 no7 pp 799ndash805 2001
[26] K P Singh and C P Kushwaha ldquoDiversity of flowering andfruiting phenology of trees in a tropical deciduous forest inIndiardquo Annals of Botany vol 97 no 2 pp 265ndash276 2006
[27] R K Vashisthe N Rawat A K Chaturvedi B P Nautiyal PPrasad and M C Nautiyal ldquoAn exploration on the phenologyof different growth forms of an alpine expanse of north-westHimalaya Indiardquo New York Science Journal vol 2 pp 29ndash422009
[28] V P Upadhyay and P K Mishra ldquoPhenology of mangroves treespecies on Orissa coast Indiardquo Tropical Ecology vol 51 no 2pp 289ndash295 2010
[29] A RKasarkar andDKKulkarni ldquoPhenological studies of fam-ily zingiberaceae with special reference to Alpinia and Zingiberfrom Kolhapur region(MS) Indiardquo Bioscience Discovery vol 2pp 322ndash327 2011
[30] O Bajpai A Kumar A K Mishra N Sahu S K Behera and LB Chaudhary ldquoPhenological study of two dominant tree speciesin tropical moist deciduous forest from the Northern IndiardquoInternational Journal of Botany vol 8 pp 66ndash72 2012
[31] A Lokho and Y Kumar ldquoReproductive phenology and mor-phology analysis of IndianDendrobium Sw (Orchidaceae) fromthe northeast regionrdquo International Journal of Scientific andResearch Publications vol 2 pp 1ndash14 2012
[32] S H G Champion and S K SethA Revised Survey of the ForestTypes of India The manager of Publications Delhi India 1968
[33] R E Sosebee andH HWiebe ldquoEffect of phenological develop-ment on radiophosphorus translocation from leaves in crestedwheatgrassrdquo Oecologia vol 13 no 2 pp 103ndash112 1973
[34] F G Taylor Jr Phenodynamics of Production in a MesicDeciduous Forest USIBP Eastern Deciduous Forest Biome OakRidges National Laboratory Oak Ridge Tenn USA 1972
[35] M Y Nuttonson Wheat-Climate Relationships and the Useof Phenology in Ascertaining the Thermal and Photo-Thermal
Requirements of Wheat Based on Data of North America andSomeThermally Analogous Areas of North America in the SovietUnion and in Finland American Institute for Crop EcologyWashington DC USA 1955
[36] J P Blaisdell ldquoSeasonal development and yield of nativeplants on the upper Snake River plains and their relation tocertain climatic factorsrdquoUSDepartment of Agriculture TechnicalBulletin vol 1190 pp 1ndash68 1958
[37] J Hansen M Sato R Ruedy K Lo D W Lea and MMedina-Elizade ldquoGlobal temperature changerdquo Proceedings ofthe National Academy of Sciences of the United States of Americavol 103 no 39 pp 14288ndash14293 2006
[38] Y Julien and J A Sobrino ldquoGlobal land surface phenologytrends from GIMMS databaserdquo International Journal of RemoteSensing vol 30 no 13 pp 3495ndash3513 2009
[39] A Menzel T H Sparks N Estrella et al ldquoEuropean phenolog-ical response to climate change matches the warming patternrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 12 no 10 pp 1969ndash1976 2006
[40] C Parmesan and G Yohe ldquoA globally coherent fingerprint ofclimate change impacts across natural systemsrdquoNature vol 421no 6918 pp 37ndash42 2003
[41] S Piao J Fang L Zhou P Ciais and B Zhu ldquoVariations insatellite-derived phenology in Chinarsquos temperate vegetationrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 12 no 4 pp 672ndash685 2006
[42] J Ollerton and A J Lack ldquoFlowering phenology an exampleof relaxation of natural selectionrdquo Trends in Ecology andEvolution vol 7 no 8 pp 274ndash276 1992
[43] F Saavedra DW Inouye M V Price and J Harte ldquoChanges inflowering and abundance of Delphinium nuttallianum (Ranun-culaceae) in response to a subalpine climate warming experi-mentrdquo Global Change Biology vol 9 no 6 pp 885ndash894 2003
[44] N C Stenseth and AMysterud ldquoClimate changing phenologyand other life history traits nonlinearity and match-mismatchto the environmentrdquo Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of theUnited States of America vol 99 no 21 pp 13379ndash13381 2002
[45] I Ibanez R B Primack A J Miller-Rushing et al ldquoForecastingphenology under globalwarmingrdquoPhilosophical Transactions ofthe Royal Society B vol 365 no 1555 pp 3247ndash3260 2010
[46] C Parmesan ldquoInfluences of species latitudes and methodolo-gies on estimates of phenological response to global warmingrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 13 no 9 pp 1860ndash1872 2007
Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Anatomy Research International
PeptidesInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom
International Journal of
Volume 2014
Zoology
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Molecular Biology International
GenomicsInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
BioinformaticsAdvances in
Marine BiologyJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Signal TransductionJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
BioMed Research International
Evolutionary BiologyInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Biochemistry Research International
ArchaeaHindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Genetics Research International
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Advances in
Virolog y
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom
Nucleic AcidsJournal of
Volume 2014
Stem CellsInternational
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Enzyme Research
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
International Journal of
Microbiology
10 Journal of Botany
[18] M Shen Y Tang J Chen X Zhu and Y Zheng ldquoInfluencesof temperature and precipitation before the growing seasonon spring phenology in grasslands of the central and easternQinghai-Tibetan Plateaurdquo Agricultural and Forest Meteorologyvol 151 no 12 pp 1711ndash1722 2011
[19] R P Shukla and P S Ramakrishnan ldquoPhenology of trees in asub-tropical humid forest in north-eastern IndiardquoVegetatio vol49 no 2 pp 103ndash109 1982
[20] R P Shukla and P S Ramakrishnan ldquoLeaf dynamics of tropicaltrees related to successional statusrdquoNew Phytologist vol 97 no4 pp 697ndash706 1984
[21] P K Ralhan R K Khanna S P Singh and J S Singh ldquoPheno-logical characteristics of the tree layer of Kumaun Himalayanforestsrdquo Vegetatio vol 60 no 2 pp 91ndash101 1985
[22] Y P S Pangtey R S Rawal N S Bankoti and S S SamantldquoPhenology of high-altitude plants of Kumaun in CentralHimalaya Indiardquo International Journal of Biometeorology vol34 no 2 pp 122ndash127 1990
[23] S N Prasad and M Hegde ldquoPhenology and seasonality in thetropical deciduous forest of Bandipur South IndiardquoProceedingsPlant Sciences vol 96 no 2 pp 121ndash133 1986
[24] N Sivaraj and K V Krishnamurthy ldquoFlowering phenology inthe vegetation of Shervaroys South IndiardquoVegetatio vol 79 no1-2 pp 85ndash88 1988
[25] D M Bhat and K S Murali ldquoPhenology of understorey speciesof tropical moist forest of Western Ghats region of UttaraKannada district in South Indiardquo Current Science vol 81 no7 pp 799ndash805 2001
[26] K P Singh and C P Kushwaha ldquoDiversity of flowering andfruiting phenology of trees in a tropical deciduous forest inIndiardquo Annals of Botany vol 97 no 2 pp 265ndash276 2006
[27] R K Vashisthe N Rawat A K Chaturvedi B P Nautiyal PPrasad and M C Nautiyal ldquoAn exploration on the phenologyof different growth forms of an alpine expanse of north-westHimalaya Indiardquo New York Science Journal vol 2 pp 29ndash422009
[28] V P Upadhyay and P K Mishra ldquoPhenology of mangroves treespecies on Orissa coast Indiardquo Tropical Ecology vol 51 no 2pp 289ndash295 2010
[29] A RKasarkar andDKKulkarni ldquoPhenological studies of fam-ily zingiberaceae with special reference to Alpinia and Zingiberfrom Kolhapur region(MS) Indiardquo Bioscience Discovery vol 2pp 322ndash327 2011
[30] O Bajpai A Kumar A K Mishra N Sahu S K Behera and LB Chaudhary ldquoPhenological study of two dominant tree speciesin tropical moist deciduous forest from the Northern IndiardquoInternational Journal of Botany vol 8 pp 66ndash72 2012
[31] A Lokho and Y Kumar ldquoReproductive phenology and mor-phology analysis of IndianDendrobium Sw (Orchidaceae) fromthe northeast regionrdquo International Journal of Scientific andResearch Publications vol 2 pp 1ndash14 2012
[32] S H G Champion and S K SethA Revised Survey of the ForestTypes of India The manager of Publications Delhi India 1968
[33] R E Sosebee andH HWiebe ldquoEffect of phenological develop-ment on radiophosphorus translocation from leaves in crestedwheatgrassrdquo Oecologia vol 13 no 2 pp 103ndash112 1973
[34] F G Taylor Jr Phenodynamics of Production in a MesicDeciduous Forest USIBP Eastern Deciduous Forest Biome OakRidges National Laboratory Oak Ridge Tenn USA 1972
[35] M Y Nuttonson Wheat-Climate Relationships and the Useof Phenology in Ascertaining the Thermal and Photo-Thermal
Requirements of Wheat Based on Data of North America andSomeThermally Analogous Areas of North America in the SovietUnion and in Finland American Institute for Crop EcologyWashington DC USA 1955
[36] J P Blaisdell ldquoSeasonal development and yield of nativeplants on the upper Snake River plains and their relation tocertain climatic factorsrdquoUSDepartment of Agriculture TechnicalBulletin vol 1190 pp 1ndash68 1958
[37] J Hansen M Sato R Ruedy K Lo D W Lea and MMedina-Elizade ldquoGlobal temperature changerdquo Proceedings ofthe National Academy of Sciences of the United States of Americavol 103 no 39 pp 14288ndash14293 2006
[38] Y Julien and J A Sobrino ldquoGlobal land surface phenologytrends from GIMMS databaserdquo International Journal of RemoteSensing vol 30 no 13 pp 3495ndash3513 2009
[39] A Menzel T H Sparks N Estrella et al ldquoEuropean phenolog-ical response to climate change matches the warming patternrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 12 no 10 pp 1969ndash1976 2006
[40] C Parmesan and G Yohe ldquoA globally coherent fingerprint ofclimate change impacts across natural systemsrdquoNature vol 421no 6918 pp 37ndash42 2003
[41] S Piao J Fang L Zhou P Ciais and B Zhu ldquoVariations insatellite-derived phenology in Chinarsquos temperate vegetationrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 12 no 4 pp 672ndash685 2006
[42] J Ollerton and A J Lack ldquoFlowering phenology an exampleof relaxation of natural selectionrdquo Trends in Ecology andEvolution vol 7 no 8 pp 274ndash276 1992
[43] F Saavedra DW Inouye M V Price and J Harte ldquoChanges inflowering and abundance of Delphinium nuttallianum (Ranun-culaceae) in response to a subalpine climate warming experi-mentrdquo Global Change Biology vol 9 no 6 pp 885ndash894 2003
[44] N C Stenseth and AMysterud ldquoClimate changing phenologyand other life history traits nonlinearity and match-mismatchto the environmentrdquo Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of theUnited States of America vol 99 no 21 pp 13379ndash13381 2002
[45] I Ibanez R B Primack A J Miller-Rushing et al ldquoForecastingphenology under globalwarmingrdquoPhilosophical Transactions ofthe Royal Society B vol 365 no 1555 pp 3247ndash3260 2010
[46] C Parmesan ldquoInfluences of species latitudes and methodolo-gies on estimates of phenological response to global warmingrdquoGlobal Change Biology vol 13 no 9 pp 1860ndash1872 2007
Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Anatomy Research International
PeptidesInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom
International Journal of
Volume 2014
Zoology
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Molecular Biology International
GenomicsInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
BioinformaticsAdvances in
Marine BiologyJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Signal TransductionJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
BioMed Research International
Evolutionary BiologyInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Biochemistry Research International
ArchaeaHindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Genetics Research International
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Advances in
Virolog y
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom
Nucleic AcidsJournal of
Volume 2014
Stem CellsInternational
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Enzyme Research
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
International Journal of
Microbiology
Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Anatomy Research International
PeptidesInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom
International Journal of
Volume 2014
Zoology
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Molecular Biology International
GenomicsInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
BioinformaticsAdvances in
Marine BiologyJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Signal TransductionJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
BioMed Research International
Evolutionary BiologyInternational Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Biochemistry Research International
ArchaeaHindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Genetics Research International
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Advances in
Virolog y
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom
Nucleic AcidsJournal of
Volume 2014
Stem CellsInternational
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Enzyme Research
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
International Journal of
Microbiology