Orange Blossoms, Heat, and Radiation Forecasts

One positive note about the Florida spring is the smell of citrus blossoms. All of our citrus trees are in bloom this week (above). This Navel Orange (cultivated sweet orange trees are collectively known as: Citrus ×sinensis (L.) Osbeck (pro sp.) [maxima × reticulata]) is going to have quite the crop of fruit this year. It has, unfortunately lost most of its characteristics due to long-term drought and recurrent freezes. . . and I obviously don't bother picking the fruit. I let the squirrels and raccoons have it.

A single mutation in 1810 to 1820 in a Selecta orange tree planted at a monastery near Bahia in Brazil, probably yielded the navel orange, also known as the Washington, Riverside, or Bahia navel. However, researchers at the University of California, Riverside, believe that the parent variety was more likely the Portuguese navel (Umbigo) orange described by Risso and Poiteau (1818–22). The mutation causes the orange to develop a second orange at the base of the original fruit, opposite the stem, as a conjoined twin in a set of smaller segments embedded within the peel of the larger orange. From the outside, it looks similar to the human navel, hence its name.

Because the mutation leaves the fruit seedless, and therefore sterile, the only means available to cultivate more trees of this variety is to graft cuttings onto other varieties of citrus tree. It was introduced into Australia in 1824 and Florida in 1835.

Only one branch of my large tree (12-feet tall or more) still possesses the navel characteristic. The remainder of the tree has reverted back to whatever its graft variety was. Repeated freezes and drought have caused decline of all the citrus we planted in the past 15 years.



Above: My very large grapefruit tree (Citrus ×paradisi Macfad. (pro sp.) [maxima × sinensis]) is also in full bloom. It has fared much better than most of the orange trees. I've heavily fertilized and irrigated all the citrus this spring and the only tree that appears to be failing to bloom, again, is my blood orange. Blood oranges are a mutation of C. sinensis derived from abnormal pigmentation of the fruit that gives its pulp a streaked red color. The juice produced from such oranges is often dark burgundy, hence reminiscent of blood. Original blood oranges were first discovered and cultivated in the 15th century in Sicily. It appears to be a very finicky tree. . . perhaps it doesn't care for our recent hot, dry springs and summers.



I've also encountered plenty of poison ivy in the past week (above). Toxicodendron radicans (L.) Kuntze is native east of the Rocky mountains across North America. It is particularly prolific this spring. While I am mildly allergic I am rarely without gloves. The plant produces a resin called urushiol that can cause an allergic rash sometimes referred to as allergic phytodermatitis.

RADIATION UPDATE:

While the US Government is playing down the radiation threat from Japan, many in the private sector are mapping the path of the plumes using weather forecasting computer models. Below: The current 5-day forecast movement of plumes of radioactive air emitted at 10 meters altitude (red line) and 300 meters altitude (blue line) at 2pm EDT, Saturday March 18, 2011 from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The plumes get caught in a southwesterly flow of air in advance of an approaching low pressure system and lifted to 4 - 5 km altitude. The plume emitted at 10 meters (red line) ends up getting caught in the clockwise circulation of air around a high pressure system situated north of Hawaii, and spirals down towards the surface in the high's sinking air. The plume emitted at higher altitudes (blue line) ends up escaping this high and making it over California at high altitude, getting caught in the southwesterly flow around a low pressure system predicted to affect California next week. This graphic created using NOAA's HYSPLIT trajectory model.

One of the best analysis of the potential movement of the radioactive plumes can be found at Weather Underground.

There is still no word on just how much radioactive material will be in either of these plumes.



Click on the graphic for a larger view or go to http://wunderground.com.

OTHER WEATHER NEWS:

While it is uncomfortably hot for me these days in Florida (today saw a high of 85° F. (29.5° C.) its nothing like a late winter-early-spring 2011 day in Mumbai. The temperature in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India skyrocketed to an all-time high of 107°F (41.6°C) yesterday at the downtown Colaba observatory. Records at the observatory go back to 1847, which may be the longest time series of temperature observations at any location in Asia. Mumbai's previous all-time record temperature was 105°F (40.6°C) recorded on April 19, 1955. Mumbai's Santacruz Airport, located in the suburbs several miles inland, did not set an all-time high yesterday, hitting 41.3°C (all-time record: 42.2°C on April 14, 1952). Currently -- as I write this -- Mumbai International Airport is reporting a temperature of 100° F. (38° C.) The record heat is due to an unusually hot and dry northeasterly flow of air from the center of India that has kept the usual cooling sea breezes from establishing themselves along the coast.