On the windswept coasts of Oregon and California, there lives an unassuming little plant that can withstand salty blasts that kill its inland counterparts.
On the windswept coasts of Oregon and California, there lives an unassuming little plant that can withstand salty blasts that kill its inland counterparts.
It’s called the yellow monkeyflower. And now researchers are beginning to understand how it manages to thrive in conditions that leave other plants burned, brown and withered.
“The yellow monkeyflower has evolved multiple adaptations to salt spray,” said David Lowry, a biologist at Michigan State University and senior author of the new study, which was published this month in the American Journal of Botany.
By studying the diversity of ways that wild monkeyflowers adapt to salt spray, the researchers say their work could point to ways to make other plants, including crops, more resilient to salt exposure.
Read More: University of Michigan
Image: By studying the diversity of ways that wild monkeyflowers adapt to salt spray, researchers say their work could point to ways to make other plants, including crops, more resilient to salt exposure. And not just from ocean spray, but from sources ranging from winter road salt to worsening storm surges. (Credit: David Lowry, Michigan State University)
