A new species of wild flower has been discovered on a Scottish island.
Scientists have found a special type of yellow monkeyflower growing in Shetland and say that its evolution has happened in the last two centuries.
It is the descendant of a non-native species, the yellow monkeyflower (Mimulas guttatus), which was colonised in the United Kingdom during Victorian Times.
The new plant is referred to by researchers at the University of Stirling as ‘Shetland’s monkeyflower’ and produces yellow flowers with small red spots.
It is larger than the typical monkeyflower and its flowers are more open.
Researchers say the finding is significant as it shows that a major evolutionary step can occur in non-native species over a short period of time, rather than over thousands of years.
Associate Professor Dr Mario Vallejo-Marin, from the university, said: “Evolution is often thought to be a slow process taking thousands or millions of years.
“Yet we show that a major evolutionary step can occur in a couple hundred years.”
Researchers carried out tests after a “chance encounter” with the plant while conducting fieldwork near Quarff, Shetland.
They measured the plant’s genome size and surveyed 30 populations of monkeyflowers from Shetland and across the United Kingdom.
The plants were then grown under controlled conditions where their floral and vegetative states were measured to compare the effects of genome duplication in flowering time.
They also carried out genetic analysis to look at the relationship between the new polyploid plant and other flowers in the Shetland Isles.
A polyploid plant has more than double the basic number of chromosomes and crops such as potatoes, tobacco and coffee are polyploids.
Genome duplication is common in the evolutionary history of flowering plants but it is rare to witness such a phenomenon in recent years
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here