''Coincya monensis'' subsp. ''monensis'', the Isle of Man cabbage, is a species of plant in the family

Brassicaceae Brassicaceae () or (the older) Cruciferae () is a medium-sized and economically important family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous plants, while some are shrubs. The le ...

that is found in coastal habitats on the west of the island of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

(from north

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

Kintyre Kintyre ( gd, Cinn Tìre, ) is a peninsula in western Scotland, in the southwest of Argyll and Bute. The peninsula stretches about , from the Mull of Kintyre in the south to East and West Loch Tarbert in the north. The region immediately north ...

) and around the coasts of the

Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...

Conservation status

The

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

is thought to naturally occur in only 22 localities and is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

. It is listed as a nationally scarce British species and is in serious risk of

extinction Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

. The species was once abundant on the

, hence its name, however, for an unknown reason its

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

has collapsed to only a few individual and isolated plants. On the

, the

Manx Wildlife Trust Manx Wildlife Trust (MWT) was founded on 6 March 1973 and is the Isle of Man’s leading nature conservation charity. Nature Reserves The Manx Wildlife Trust (as of September 2022) manages 26 nature reserves, along with the Calf of Man (on behalf ...

began propagating the species in their greenhouses in 2006. It is hoped that this will halt the decline of the species and prevent its extinction. In 2022 it was added to the Isle of Man’s red-list of plants of conservation concern.

Habitat

The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils, which must be well-drained yet moist. The plant can grow in

acidic In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a sequ ...

, neutral and

alkaline In chemistry, an alkali (; from ar, القلوي, al-qaly, lit=ashes of the saltwort) is a base (chemistry), basic, ionic compound, ionic salt (chemistry), salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as ...

soils, in semi-shade (light

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

) or no shade. ''Coincya monensis'' subsp. ''monensis'' needs mobile sand dunes where wind or other

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...

prevents thick vegetation cover and allows areas free from vegetation cover for ''C. m.'' subsp. ''monensis'' to colonise. Trampling by walkers can help achieve this habitat, hence ''C. m. monensis'' can often be found growing along footpaths through coastal dunes.

Biology

The Isle-of-Man cabbage, a

dicot The dicotyledons, also known as dicots (or, more rarely, dicotyls), are one of the two groups into which all the flowering plants (angiosperms) were formerly divided. The name refers to one of the typical characteristics of the group: namely, t ...

plant, is

biennial Biennial means (an event) lasting for two years or occurring every two years. The related term biennium is used in reference to a period of two years. In particular, it can refer to: * Biennial plant, a plant which blooms in its second year and th ...

and grows to a height of 0.3 metres. It forms rosettes than can be up to a metre in diameter. The flowers have four leaves, are

hermaphrodite In reproductive biology, a hermaphrodite () is an organism that has both kinds of reproductive organs and can produce both gametes associated with male and female sexes. Many Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic groups of animals (mostly invertebrate ...

and are pollinated by

insects Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of j ...

. ''Coincya monensis'' subsp ''monensis'' flowers from April.

Taxonomy

Other subspecies in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

'' Coincya'' are the Lundy cabbage, '' Coincya wrightii'', and the star mustard, ''Coincya monensis'' subsp. ''recurvata''. The star mustard, a plant introduced to eight U.S. states, is the same species as the Isle of Man cabbage but a different subspecies. It may have been introduced to the U.S. as the Isle-of Man cabbage and subsequently evolved through the

founder effect In population genetics, the founder effect is the loss of genetic variation that occurs when a new population is established by a very small number of individuals from a larger population. It was first fully outlined by Ernst Mayr in 1942, using ...

and geographic isolation into a new subspecies. The Manx name for the species is , literally 'Manx cabbage'. Outside the

, the Isle of Man cabbage is also known as the star mustard, wallflower cabbage, tall wallflower cabbage and coincya. In its

scientific name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

, the specific descriptor is

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

for ''Manx''. In Latin, the Isle of Man is called .

References

* Clapham, Tutin and Warburg. ''Flora of the British Isles.'' Cambridge University Press (1962).

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q5141590 Endangered plants Biota of the Isle of Man Flora of the United Kingdom Plant subspecies monensis subsp. monensis Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN Taxobox trinomials not recognized by IUCN