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A plant used in traditional Chinese medicine has evolved to be less visible to humans, new research shows.
Scientists have found that Fritillaria delavayi plants, which live on the rocky slopes of China’s Hengduan Mountains, are more similar to their surroundings in areas where they are heavily harvested.
This suggests that humans are “pushing” the evolution of this species into new forms of color because better camouflaged plants have a better chance of survival.
The study was conducted by the Kunming Institute of Botany (Chinese Academy of Sciences) and the University of Exeter.
“It is extraordinary how humans can have such a direct and dramatic impact on the coloration of wild organisms, not only on their survival but on their own evolution,” said Professor Martin Stevens, of the Center for Ecology and Conservation on campus. Penryn from Exeter, reports Eureka Alert.
“Many plants appear to use camouflage to hide from herbivores who might eat them, but here we see camouflage evolving in response to human foragers.
“Humans may have led the evolution of defensive strategies in other plant species, but surprisingly little research has examined this.”
In the new study, the researchers measured how well plants from different populations matched their mountainous surroundings and how easy they were to harvest, and spoke with the local population to estimate how much harvest was made each time. place.
They found that the level of camouflage of the plants correlated with the levels of harvest.
In a computer experiment, even the most camouflaged plants took longer to be detected by humans.
Fritillaria delavayi is a perennial herb that has leaves, ranging in color from gray to brown to green, at a young age and produces only one flower per year after the fifth year.
Bulb fritillary has been used in Chinese medicine for over 2,000 years, and high prices have led to increased yields in recent years.
“Like other camouflaged plants we have studied, we thought that the mimetic evolution of this fritillary was done by herbivores, but we did not find such animals,” said Dr. Yang Niu of the Kunming Institute of Botany. “Then we realized that the reason could have been humans.”
Professor Hang Sun of the Kunming Institute of Botany added: “Commercial harvesting is a much stronger selection pressure than many pressures from nature.” The current state of biodiversity on earth is determined both by nature and by ourselves. “
The article, published in the journal Current Biology, is titled: “Commercial Harvest Fueled the Evolution of Camouflage in an Alpine Plant.”
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