Wildlife expert Doctor Éanna Ní Lamhna has said that Monaghan and Cavan are the last counties to see green leaves on their trees every year.
Dr Ní Lamhna told The Anton Savage Show that Spring spreads along the South coast up the sides and middle of the country.
“It’s a temperature thing,” she said.
“I mean, if you look at the average temperatures, the South and West of Ireland, Cork and Kerry are warmest, they’re 7°.
“Then it spreads around the coast because the coast is warmer than inland.
“It goes up the side and then it comes from the edge - and the furthest away from the edge is Cavan and Monaghan.”
Ireland at night in the earth planet rotating from space. Image: ManuelMata / Alamy. 19 June 2021Dr Ní Lamhna said that this phenomenon is known as ‘the green wave’, and takes around two weeks from St Patrick’s Day to spread across the country.
“If you’re looking at it from space or from nearby anywhere, you see it getting green [in] the South of Spain,” she said.
“Then, because these are the deciduous trees that lose their leaves in the winter, they get them back.
“It takes them, oh I don’t know, March to May to get up to the top at four kilometres, the speed a person walks at.”
Last tree to bloom
According to Dr Ní Lamhna, the last tree to get green leaves in Ireland is the ash tree.
“That comes out at the end of may – as naked as an ash tree under a May moon [said John Millington Synge],” she said.
“The first one is the horse chestnut which isn’t even native, it thinks it’s still in Spain.
“It was brought here by people who thought they were lovely trees – and they are lovely trees – so it thinks it’s in Spain putting all it’s leave out on Paddy’s Day.
"Stupid thing - everything else comes out in April.”
Dr Ní Lamhna said the first day of spring is definitively the first of February, as it marks six-week until the March equinox on the 22nd.
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Main image: English countryside in spring season with sheep and lambs in a Somerset meadow, England, UK. Image: incamerastock / Alamy. 14 May 2014
