People all over Finland have been noticing much more bilberry blossom than usual this year, and the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) has provided scientific confirmation: there are more bilberry blossoms than usual in almost every part of the country.
"Bilberries have blossomed abundantly this spring, and in the very southernmost part of Finland the blooming is probably already over," said Rainer Peltola, a specialist researcher at Luke.
So far, Luke's system, which operates on a slight delay, has already noted the reddening of bilberry – also known as European blueberry – flowers in Oulu. At the end of last week, flowers were visible as far north as Rovaniemi.
According to Peltola, the natural variation in flowering from year to year in a particular place is something of a mystery. What is known is that conditions the previous autumn set the potential for the plants' spring and summer flowering.
"There is a certain cyclicality in bilberry flowering on a large scale, but at the local level it is usually obscured by other factors," said Peltola.
A bumper crop?
However, the number of flowers does not allow experts to draw conclusions about how plentiful the berry harvest itself will be. The single most important factor governing that is pollination of the flowering plants.
"No matter how many flowers there are, there will be no harvest if pollination is not successful. And vice versa: if pollination is excellent, even a smaller number of flowers can produce a very good harvest," Peltola explained.
Whether pollination has been a success or not can only be determined once the unripe berries emerge. The recent warm weather has provided ideal conditions for pollinating insects.
If nature progresses at its normal pace, the first bilberries for eating should be picked in the first half of July, starting in southern Finland.