In another example of “citizen science” the Natural History Museum in the UK is enlisting the help of the public in a survey of cherry trees.
The results will produce a map of cherry tree locations and their flowering and fruiting timings. It will give scientists a better insight into the cherry tree population and help them find out how climate change may be affecting the flowering and fruiting times.
You can read all about it on the NHM’s website, and follow progress on a handy map.
As I’ve probably said here before, I think this sort of approach could work really well with heirloom varieties. But I imagine not as many people will be interested in oats as in cherries.