On the windswept coasts of Oregon and California lives an unassuming little plant called the monkeyflower, which can withstand salty blasts that kill its inland counterparts. Now, researchers at Michigan State University 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 professor in the College of Natural Science 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.