Get the latest tech news

You can't grow cool-climate plants in hot climates

Since moving to Deep South Texas 4 years ago I've come to realize that many plants I used to love growing in the cool mild maritime climate of the SF bay area are impossible to grow where I live. This is not just because of the high daytime heat. It's not as simple as that. Specifically, it is the h

This means they burn sugars to create new tissue as well as the chemical compounds they use to defend themselves against fungi & insects, as well as simply to conduct daily metabolic processes required for survival. This leads to a reduced net carbon gain in a cool-season or cool-climate plant that has spent the past few million years evolving in a place like the Páramo of Central America, or the high Andes, or the rocky mountains. I encountered Solanum pennellii growing in a drainage sandwiched between rocky, almost barren slopes that were dotted with massive Browningia candelaris cacti at 8,000’ (2440 meters) in Northern Chile.

Get the Android app