Plants are sprouting and blossoming earlier than usual as the island basks in a relatively warm and dry winter, a phenomenon that is both good and bad news for growers.

The impact on vegetables such as lettuce, cauliflower and cabbage is generally positive because these plants grow faster in warm weather, according to Ta’ Qali Producers Group head Peter Axisa.

Early crops, he said, resulted in higher exports of fruit and vegetables, although, in general, the export market could not depend on the odd “good” year.

Fruit trees, on the other hand, are at a high risk. Thinking it is already spring, fruit trees such as peach, pear and plum, as well as vines, which normally start sprouting in late February or March, are blooming prematurely.

To produce an abundant crop the following season, they have to go into deep dormancy. January is the peak period for pruning and this can only be done if the plant is in deep sleep. If the plant “woke up” and was pruned outside its dormancy stage, it could result in a poorer yield, Mr Axisa explained.

Although growers wait for the right moment to prune, there was a limit to how long they could wait. “Once time is up, as is the case now, one has no choice but to prune even if conditions are not ideal.”

The uncharacteristically mild weather, perhaps the result of ­­climate change, also affects pollination.

Environment technician Stephen Mifsud said it was important for plant species to bloom in their naturally programmed period because of the amount of pollinators in the region. Seed survival, dispersal and germination also depended on fruit ripening at the right time.

The borage (fidloqqom) and crown daisy (lellux) flowers are annuals, which usually blossom in January and February respectively but have this year started blossoming as early as December.

Mr Mifsud said the first Ophrys orchids had also blossomed some three weeks earlier than usual.

Plants used natural indicators of time, namely the period of light per day, temperature change and rainfall. False triggering could have a series of negative effects, Mr Mifsud said.

Under normal circumstances, annual plants programmed to flower in spring usually set seed in May or June, which marks the end of rainfall. This means the seeds will not receive sufficient water until autumn, the ideal time to germinate. If flowers bloom two months earlier than expected, and seeds are formed in March instead of May, then rain in March and April causes them to germinate. Finding themselves in the hot months of June and July, the plantlets then wither and die.

Some flower plants also require a cold period to flower in spring. The lack of cold weather results in fewer of them.

Fauna whose larval stage depends on water, like dragonflies, also suffer from lack of rain water.

“The very calm and humid nights we are experiencing are also ideal for the multiplying of fungi spores causing other types of problems. Some insects that normally die off or go into dormancy remain partially active and ready for an early build up next season,” Mr Axisa said.

“Climate change can have gradual devastating adverse conditions on biodiversity,” Mr Mifsud said.

“Some experts claim climate change takes place slowly and biodiversity will have time to adjust itself while species can migrate to places were conditions are more suitable.

“However, plants cannot ‘migrate’ and they would be the most fastidious to climate change.”

On the other hand, nature could tolerate some abnormal years of extreme climate condition and one warm winter was not threatening in general, Mr Mifsud added.