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Deep below the once purple but now wintering and dormant fields of Provençal lavender, something is rotten. ficus
It will not make itself known until spring and summer, when the cicadas another symbol of this picturesque region of southern France are ready to emerge from the sun-warmed earth. And then it will be too late. Hundreds of thousands of cicada larvae will not only have devastated ficus the plants ' roots, but the adult insects will also transmit ficus a fatal micro-bacterium that will make the plants slowly wither and die.
Producers say that between 2007 and 2010 the region's production of the most popular plant, lavandin, used in soaps, perfumes, insect repellents, essential oils and the celebrated herbes de Provence has halved.
The culprit is a mini cicada called a cicadelle which French lavender producers believe has proliferated because of hotter, drier summers, blamed on global warming. The cicadelle lays its eggs several centimetres below the plants. Not only do the young insects feed on the roots; the adult insects that emerge feed on the plants, both transmitting what scientists know as the stolbur phytoplasma.
There are around 30 types of lavender, producing flowers of varying colours including purple, pink and white. The most widely grown is lavandin, a hybrid. France has 1,700 lavender producers working 16,000 hectares of lavandin, along with another 4,000 hectares of strictly controlled "pure" lavender. The lavender ficus industry sustains an estimated 10,000 jobs.
"The cicada are difficult to deal with because we can't find a way to kill the larvae in the ground and we can't use pesticides because a lot of bee-keepers bring their hives near our fields during flowering," said Eric Chaisse of the Provence regional centre for experimentation on plants used in perfumes, aromas and medicines.
"It's very depressing and financially ruinous for lavender producers to cultivate plants that are supposed to last 10 years and find them dying within three years," said Chaisse. "Quite apart from the loss of income and jobs in producing lavender, there is also the tourist industry. People often come to Provence just to see the lavender."
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Cicadas could destroy Provence's lavender fields in 20 years This article was published on the Guardian website at 10.58 EST on Monday 25 November 2013 . It was last modified at 14.20 EST on Thursday 9 January 2014 .
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