India, March 6 -- The 'Black Death' or deadly bubonic plague that swept across Europe between 1347 and 1353, did not lead to a 'pristine' landscape where diverse varieties of plant life flourished, a new study by the University of York in the United Kingdom has found.

The pandemic wiped out up to one half of the continent's population. As there were no humans, farms, villages and fields were abandoned, leading to what is known as a historic 'rewilding' event.

One would expect that such a landscape would be almost akin to a 'Garden of Eden'. But new research by scientists at the University of York found that this was not necessarily the case.

The researchers examined plant diversity in the centuries before and after the Black Death and ...