Spring comes early because of global warming

Spring arrived incredibly early this year, according to a botanist who monitors the blooming patterns of flowers.

Cristol Fleming says she believes the appearance of flowers up to two months early is down to the changes created by global warming.

Experts have started calling the shift in the times that plants bloom "season creep" and using decades of research have charted how much earlier it is happening.

The leaves of the English oak are appearing sooner, meaning that winter moths are coming out earlier and, because the birds that eat them are still flying north, they have already turned from caterpillars and into moths.

Their research is matched by that of researchers in Korea tracking cherry blossom and the U.S., which records its findings at the Smithsonian Institution's National Herbarium every year.

A 2005 analysis of 100 of the most popular flowers, 90 bloomed up to 44 days sooner than they did 20 years ago, according to the Washington Post. 'There is always variation from year-to-year in nature.

'And I don’t want to sound alarmist that spring is coming earlier and earlier,” said Fleming, who is in her 70s. “But, boy, every year, we do feel it.'

Meanwhile Remote Sensing Systems has shown that March 2011 was the coolest March since 1994.

It was 0.026C cooler than average - the first month that has been cooler than average since June 2008.

Ms Fleming worries that plants' life cycles are speeding up.

Her concern is that their insect pollinators won't be able to cope with the Earth's changing habitats.

'Unlike animals, plants can't just get up and move.

'If they end up in a climate that's too warm, well, they'll just die.'