Turns out, no island… is an island!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Island gardens are a sight to behold, but how did all those plants get there?
Enter Andre Naranjo and team from the Florida Museum of Natural History.
They studied Hispaniola Island! It has more plant diversity than any other island in the Caribbean! And many plants were total outsiders! How?
They compared local plant DNA with over EIGHT HUNDRED species to find out!
Results? Many plants traced back to continental America … from about one-point-five MILLION years ago! Likely arriving by storms, sea currents, or…birds?!
This discovery reveals how islands become biodiversity hotspots.
Talk about the hitchhikers of the century!
Reference: Naranjo, A. A., Judd, W. S., Ionta, G. M., Skean, J. D., Neubig, K. M., Michelangeli, F. A., & Majure, L. C. (2025). Patterns of endemism and ancestral areas of Hispaniolan Melastomes (Melastomataceae) and the role of the Massif de la Hotte in shaping diversity. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. https://doi.org/10.1093/botlinnean/boaf084