Man and his activity have long become a decisive factor in the evolution of the current living nature. Fresh proof of this came from the Kunmin Botanika Institute (China), where they studied the phenomenon of the plant Fritillaria Dlavayi, known as the hazel grouse. Its number has sharply reduced in recent years, but with a thorough verification it turned out that the number of plants, in fact, did not decrease. They just learned to hide-and not from anyone, but from people.
Residents of the mountain region Handuan have long been collecting a hazel grouse by making a popular potion from coughing. This is not simple – the plant grows on crumbling rocky slopes, only bulbs are used, at least 3,500 bulbs are needed per 1 kg of drugs. But the bulbs begin to grow only in the fifth year of the hazel grouse, which makes a massive collection impossible. However, the demand for the medicine is constantly growing and the collectors are faced with a shortage of raw materials.
After the next crop was surprisingly scarce in a very favorable spring, they took care of the issue. And they quickly found out that there were no less plants, but they rapidly changed the color. There were bright green and clearly noticeable against the background of gray-brown stones, and now faded, they began to visually merge with them. Chinese scientists checked the phenomenon experimentally, showing a grouse of redes making dozens of people, and everyone had problems with the detection of disguised plants.
The hazel grouse does not enter the aft base of the animals of the province of Handuan, his only enemies are people. This is also indicated by the fact that the masking mechanism is based on a color change in the visible range, not smell or shape, because only people search for plants with the help of vision. So far, this is only a concept, a scientific idea, and an accurate mechanism for the influence of a person on the evolution of mountain plants has yet to be studied. Moreover, in nature, well -known and other similar examples – for example, a valuable snowy lotus has also changed and began to resemble ordinary cereals so that it was less likely to be pulled out of the ground.
Source — Current Biology