The population of plants described in your question is an example of **stabilizing selection**. Stabilizing selection is a type of natural selection that favors the intermediate phenotype over the extreme phenotypes. In this case, the intermediate phenotype would be plants of medium height. This is because the short plants are not able to compete with tall plants for sunlight and the tall plants are more susceptible to wind damage. Therefore, plants of medium height are more likely to survive and reproduce successfully in this environment .
An example of stabilizing selection in humans is birth weight. Babies born with very low or very high birth weights are more likely to have health problems than babies born with an average birth weight.
