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Going Grey: Chinese Plants Evolve Alpine Camouflage to Avoid Attack

Many animal species have evolved sophisticated camouflage to avoid predators, yet research in New Phytologist has found that in the plant world a Chinese species of herb uses its grey leaves to blend into its mountainside surroundings.

As a defense strategy camouflage can be costly for plants. Flowers which rely on attracting insects for pollination may limit their chances of reproducing by hiding themselves from herbivores. To understand the costs and gains of this strategy, the team turned to Corydalis benecincta a species of perennial herb that grows on the mountain slopes of south west China.

Their results show that the plant’s main herbivore (Parnassius butterflies) cannot distinguish grey leaves against their rocky background. While this shows the evolutionary benefits in terms of preventing plant damage and aiding survival, the team also found that this outweighed possible allocation and ecological costs.