By Robin Smith
Climate change may reduce yields of crops like corn and soybeans, but it can also give some plants an edge. That's one of the takeaways of a recent study of tall goldenrod, a common wildflower that runs rampant in fields across its native range in North America and other parts of the world where it has been introduced.
Many goldenrod plants are packed by tumorlike growths, called galls, that form when insects trick the plant into building a nursery for their larvae. New research suggests that climate change can offset some of the harmful effects of these insect squatters—effects that would otherwise help keep goldenrod plants in check.
The findings were published April 4 in the journal Oecologia.
You may have spotted a tall goldenrod especially in late summer, when it carpets fields and roadsides with thick stands of feathery yellow blooms.
What you might not notice are the insect inhabitants hiding within. Goldenrod is host to dozens of insects, many of which use the plant to feed and protect their young.
The researchers studied one of them, a tiny fly called the goldenrod bunch gall midge. Females lay their eggs in leaf buds, which stops the plant from growing normally and triggers it to make a dense cluster of leaves around the egg. The insect hatches and lives within this botanical fortress, chomping away at the plant until it eventually emerges to continue its life cycle.
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