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Climate change in the Rockies could make this Colorado wildflower vanish forever

The northern rock jasmine (Androsace septentrionalis ) thrives in Colorado at altitudes between 6,000 and 14,000 feet.
Anne Marie Panetta / University of Colorado Boulder

A creamy jasmine wildflower once common across the Colorado mountains may be vanishing forever as climate change brings warmer and drier conditions.

That’s the conclusion unveiled Wednesday by scientists who conducted a 25-year experiment above Crested Butte near Gothic at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory tracking northern rock jasmine, a delicate white-petaled species also known as fairy candelabra. These wildflowers, a type of nonfragrant primrose, are typically found at elevations between 5,000 feet and 17,000 feet across the northern hemisphere.

The scientists simulated conditions that conservative climate change models indicate will be likely, continuing a trend that a preponderance of scientists have linked to climate change caused by human emissions of heat-trapping “greenhouse” pollution.

Read more from The Denver Post.


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