Plum blossom flowering uneven in Taitung County's Luanshan Tribe

Taipei, Jan. 14 (CNA) Uneven plum blossom flowering in the Luanshan Tribe in Taitung County, southeastern Taiwan, is the result of last year's typhoon damage combined with the area's hillside terrain, according to an agricultural association head.

Ho Chieh-chen (何介臣), a standing committee member of the Taitung Organic Agriculture Development Association, told CNA on Wednesday that plum trees that were not hit by strong winds have bloomed normally, while affected trees are flowering later because their newly grown trunks remain tender.

Ho, also a plum farmer, said plum blossoms usually bloom about one month before the Lunar New Year and that this year's season is expected to wind down by early February.

Some plum trees damaged by the storm disaster in August last year did not regrow leaves until September and October, said Lu Po-sung (盧柏松), deputy director of the Ministry of Agriculture's Taitung District Agricultural Research and Extension Station.

Lu said those leaves have not fully fallen, which has interfered with bud development and flowering and has limited on-schedule blooming to undamaged trees.

Flowering has reached about 40 to 50 percent in areas above 500 meters in elevation, while areas below that level are only about 10 to 20 percent in bloom, Lu said.

He said typhoon damage has also caused a disrupted flowering cycle, with some trees bearing both blooming and non-blooming branches at the same time.

Lu said poor bud differentiation has shortened the flowering period from seven to eight days to about three to four days, after which petals begin to fall.