Rare Canary Islands shrub proves fragile against drought and frost
Fernández-Marín B, Perera-Castro AV, Brito-Gutiérrez P, Arzac MI, Peña FJD
Climate Adaptation
Endemic plants clinging to a single mountainside are the canaries in the coal mine for climate tipping points, and this one is already living on the edge of what it can survive.
Researchers studied a rare shrub that grows only on two high volcanic mountains in the Canary Islands, wanting to know how it copes with drought and frost. Surprisingly, the plant doesn't have strong built-in defenses against either stress: its water-transport system can fail during severe drought, and its leaves are slow to protect themselves when temperatures drop below freezing. This means the plant is more fragile than you'd expect for something living in such an extreme place, and a changing climate could seriously threaten its survival.
Key Findings
Stem xylem was vulnerable to embolism, losing 50% conductivity at -3 MPa water potential, with no native embolism detected under current conditions.
Leaves used a supercooling strategy, nucleating ice only at -14°C, but showed low photoprotective responsiveness to freezing stress.
Adult leaves lost 50% rehydration capacity at ~45% relative water content, and the thin cuticle with high minimum leaf conductance suggests poor drought adaptation.
chevron_right Technical Summary
A rare shrub found only near the summits of two Canary Island volcanoes turns out to be surprisingly ill-equipped for the harsh conditions it lives in. Scientists found it lacks strong drought defenses and is slow to protect itself from freezing, meaning climate shifts could push it toward extinction.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Drought and Freezing Compromise Woody-Plant Functioning in High Mountain Ecosystems Under Mediterranean Climate: The Case of Bencomia exstipulata.
Bencomia exstipulata is a broad-leaved evergreen shrub endemic to the high-altitude harsh landscapes of the Canary Islands. Whether the extremely reduced distribution of its wild specimens (at arou...
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Bencomia exstipulata, the Guanches’ rose or summit bencomia, is a species in the flowering plant family of Rosaceae.