Pressed Plants Collections 'Hold Climate Clues'

Until now, reliable long-term data on plants' natural cycles, such as when they come into flower, had been scarce.

A UK team found that plants pressed 150 years ago offered "virtually identical" data to more recent observations.

The findings appear in the Journal of Ecology, published by the British Ecological Society.

"As far as we know, we are the first people ever to show independently that there is this relationship," said co-author Tony Davy, a professor of ecology at the University of East Anglia's (UEA) School of Biological Sciences. Read the full report here.

Source: by Mark Kinver, Science and environment reporter, BBC News, UK.