A group of South American plants has evolved bulbous organs in their flowers that spray pollen at pollinating birds because birds eat
the male flower parts whole
Not exact matches
The term called for, I think, is one which means that, in the case of
flowers or animals, both female and
male parts are present (and functional!)
In plant taxonomy gynandrous refers to a fusion of
male flowers (stamens, actually) on a style (
part of the pistil or female reproductive structure) such as in orchids and milkweeds.
Mulberries are dioecious, meaning that the
flowering parts are on different trees ---
males and females --- and the fruits and seeds are produced on the female plants.
Unlike say pumpkins, which produce
male and female
flowers, with the female
flower needing the pollen from the
male flower to create the pumpkin fruit, chilli
flowers contain both
male and female
parts.
«It was surprising that many classic characteristics of orchids — the tiny, dust - like seeds, the role of fungi in triggering germination, the fused
male - female
flower parts that define the orchid
flower — did not trigger the acceleration in species formation,» says Thomas Givnish, a professor of botany and first author of the new study.
They determined that it was a different species from the following observations: the
parts above ground are a dark purple, the filament of the
male (staminate)
flower is no higher than the anther, and the style of the female (pistillate)
flower is club - shaped with multiple papillae.
The
male parts of
flowers, or stamens, make pollen.
One had a mitochondrial mutation that prevents the
male parts of
flowers developing normally.
At present, the only way to prevent some plants self - fertilising is to remove the
male parts of
flowers by hand, which is very labour intensive.
But what puzzled Sokoloff was that in Sauquet's analysis, the
flower's petals and
male reproductive
parts were arranged in whorls, yet the female reproductive organs called carpels were arranged in a spiral.