National Parks of Taiwan

Yushan National Park hired the research team of Professor Tseng Yen-hsueh from the Department of Forestry, National Chung Hsing University to conduct research on the blossoming of 155 species of plants between March and December 2016. He discovered that, as the temperature rises, more species of plants will blossom, reaching its peak at July and August and the number of species start to decrease on September.

As for plants that bear fruit, the peak of their blossoming is September, which is about 1 month later than those who have flowers. The number of blossoming species has positive correlation with the temperature, while rainfall does not have significant correlation with the number of blossoming species. As the species of plants are located in higher altitude, they tend to blossom later.

This research discovered that climate changes do have influence on the natural phenomenon of blossoming and fruit bearing on the alpine plants of Yushan and drastic climate changes are harmful to the plants’ propagation. In this project, time-lapse photography was used to record the blossoming and sprouting of Rhododendron pseudochrysanthum. Besides being used to analyze the blossoming and sprouting mechanism, the films can also be used for ecological conservation explanation and education.