The Black Death was the most catastrophic pandemic in human history. Between 1347 and 1353, up to half of Europe's population – some 50 million people – died after being infected with the bacterium Yersinia pestis.
But as the human population plummeted, something unexpected happened – plant biodiversity tanked alongside it. At face value, this is odd.
According to the contemporary narrative, when humans disappear and nature is given the space and time that it needs to recover, it rebounds with verve. Six hundred and fifty years ago, however, that wasn’t the case.
Instead of doing better, plant life did worse. It was almost as if the plants were experiencing a pandemic of their own.
The cause, however, was not a bacterium, but something else.
