Chinese flower has evolved to be less visible to pickers – The Guardian

For thousands of years, the daintyFritillaria delavayi has grown slowly on the rocky slopes of the Hengduan mountains in China, producing a bright green flower after its fifth year.
But the conspicuous small plant has one deadly enemy: people, who harvest the flower for traditional Chinese medicine.
As commercial harvesting has intensified, Fritillaria delavayi has vanished by rapidly evolving to produce grey and brown leaves and flowers that cannot be so easily seen by pickers.
Scientists have…

Click here to view the original article.