Coincya is a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of flowering plant that belongs to the family Brassicaceae

Brassicaceae

Brassicaceae, a medium sized and economically important family of flowering plants , are informally known as the mustards, mustard flowers, the crucifers or the cabbage family....

. Three species of the plant are endemic to the British Isles

British Isles

The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...

., these being Coincya wrightii (Lundy Cabbage), Coincya cheiranthus (nokkasinapit) and Coincya monensis, which has two subspecies, C. monensis subsp. monensis (Isle of Man cabbage) and C. monensis subsp. recurvata (Star mustard).

The star mustard, a plant introduced to eight U.S. states is the same species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 as the Isle of Man cabbage but a different subspecies

Subspecies

Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...

. It may have been introduced to the U.S. as the Isle of Man cabbage and subsequently evolved through the founder effect

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 existing theoretical work by those such as Sewall...

 and geographic isolation into a new subspecies.

Taxonomy

• Coincya
• Coincya cheiranthus
• Coincya johnstonii
• Coincya monensis

* C. monensis subsp. monensis (Isle of Man cabbage

* C. monensis subsp. recurvata (Star mustard)

• Coincya richeri
• Coincya wrightii

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