KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Imagine the Sunflower State without its sunflowers. That’s one of the dire predictions contained in a new report on global warming released by the National Wildlife Federation, which says the Kansas state flower could move north to other states in a few decades. Increasingly warm temperatures also could mean the end of the state tree, the eastern cottonwood, according to ‘The Gardener’s Guide to Global Warming.’ ‘Everything being equal, these plants won’t thrive and will shift north,’ said Patty Glick, the report’s author and senior global warming specialist for the National Wildlife Federation. While conditions could change, Glick and other say projected increasing temperatures also could wipe out cool-weather grasses, such as Kentucky bluegrass, and many fescues that cover lawns in the region. Some experts think global warming will cause temperatures in Kansas to rise an average of 5 to 12 degrees in the next several decades. The projection that the sunflower could fade from Kansas’ landscape surprised some experts and scientists. ‘This is a plant that has survived for eons,’ said Dennis Patton, a horticulturist with the Johnson County Kansas State University Research and Extension office. ‘It is hard […]