Their key characteristic is early ripening so they require fairly high temperatures in spring and early
Posted in General on 21. Sep, 2010
Their key characteristic is early ripening, so they require fairly high temperatures in spring and early summer. They have flourished in southern Europe and the Near East, and in regions with similar warm climates, such as California and Australia. Members of the rose family, and closely related to plums, peaches, cherries and almonds, apricots are by no means native to Britain. Their original home was China; they are believed to have been brought to the Mediterranean basin by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC. According to the UK Climate Impacts Programme, very hot and dry summers of the sort Britain experienced in 1995 will strike in one in three years by the 2050s. Maximum temperatures in southern counties, such as Berkshire, which now reach about 34C (93F), will start to exceed 40C (104F).
By 2080, South-east England could become on average 5C (9F) warmer in summer, making it as hot as Bordeaux. Enter the apricots – forerunners, perhaps, of much more to come. Currently, the temperature is rising by between 0.15C and 0.2C per decade, but the rate itself will increase, and by the 2020s the climate will be nearly another full degree warmer than the average of 1961-1990. Since 1900, the average UK temperature has risen by about 1C, and the growing season has lengthened by about a month.
There is no doubt that the climate is now warming steadily in Britain, as well as in the rest of the world. You think climate change isn’t happening? The Sainsbury’s apricots, with the Union flag on the punnets, say otherwise. The harvest was a small but notable progress point in the shift that climate change is likely to bring to a world in which, among much else, we may see fruits and plants from hotter climates flourishing in British orchards and gardens. It’s the year of the apricot.