Hello, this isWild Suzhou.

Today, we willtalk about fritillaria delavayi, a small flower that grows in Southwest Chinathat recently has changed a lot.

Fritillariadelavayi is a small, yellow plant that is often used in traditional Chinesemedicine to treat illnesses like bronchitis and coughing. This flower belongsto a group of flowers, known as fritillaries. It has 3 to 5 bright greenleaves, and once a year blooms with a single flower. This flower is a brightyellow and looks sort of like an upside down tulip.

However, recently,the coloring of these flowers have changed a lot. In areas where thefritillaries are harvested more, this species has changed. The bright green andyellow flowers have become dull and are no longer as beautiful. Instead theyhave become grey and brown.

The reason forthis is because of their high demand. Since many people use this fritillariadelavayi in traditional medicine, people want it more. Because people want theflower, more of them are harvested from the wild. A kilogram of these littleflowers needs more than 3500 flowers. But how does this affect their color? Thepeople who harvest the flowers are relying on their eyesight to find them, sobright yellow blooms will be easier to see and are picked more often. Thismeans that the remaining flowers are more brown and gray, since they are harderto see. Because they are the surviving flowers, they will pollinate and thenext generation of fritillaries will also be brown and gray. This is an exampleof natural selection, since these duller plants are better at camouflage andcan better hide from humans, while the yellow flowers cannot hide from humansand will not reproduce.

For Wild Suzhou,I’m Ciana, thanks for listening and see you next time.