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

Brassicaceae Brassicaceae () or (the older but equally valid) Cruciferae () is a medium-sized and economically important Family (biology), family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous pla ...

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 north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

(from north

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

Kintyre Kintyre (, ) 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 Loch Tarbert, Argyll, East and West Loch Tarbert, Argyll, West Loch Tarbert in t ...

) and around the coasts of the

Isle of Man The Isle of Man ( , also ), or Mann ( ), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Govern ...

Conservation status

The

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

is thought to naturally occur in only 22 localities and is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...

to the

British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, 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 Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...

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

extinction Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

. The species was once abundant on the

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

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

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. As of May 2025, MWT manages 32 nature reserves, including the Calf of Man Calf of Man ( ) is a island, off the southwest c ...

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 An acid is a molecule or ion capable of either donating a proton (i.e. hydrogen cation, H+), known as a Brønsted–Lowry acid, or forming a covalent bond with an electron pair, known as a Lewis acid. The first category of acids are the ...

, neutral and

alkaline In chemistry, an alkali (; from the Arabic word , ) is a basic salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a soluble base has a pH greater than 7.0. The ...

soils, in semi-shade (light

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), 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 sunli ...

) or no

shade Shade, Shades or Shading may refer to: * Shade (color), a mixture of a color with black (often generalized as any variety of a color) * Shade (shadow), the blocking of sunlight * Shades or sunglasses * Shading, a process used in art and graphic ...

. ''Coincya monensis'' subsp. ''monensis'' needs mobile sand dunes where wind or other

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...

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, ...

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 t ...

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 A hermaphrodite () is a sexually reproducing organism that produces both male and female gametes. Animal species in which individuals are either male or female are gonochoric, which is the opposite of hermaphroditic. The individuals of many ...

and are pollinated by

insects Insects (from Latin ') are 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 jointed ...

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

Taxonomy

Other subspecies in the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

'' 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, us ...

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 ''Coincya monensis'' subsp. ''recurvata'', the star mustard or wallflower cabbage, is a subspecies of '' Coincya monensis''. It is found in eight U.S. states. It may have been introduced to the U.S. as the Isle of Man cabbage and subsequently e ...

, tall wallflower cabbage and coincya. In its

scientific name In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

, the specific descriptor is

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

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