Theorists have gotten over the hurdle
of seeking male or female individuals by
considering male and female functions
separately, even when they occur on
the same plant. The male function produces little grains of pollen carrying the
genetic material for fertilization. They
travel, often hitchhiking on animals or
wafting in wind, to a receptive surface on
a female organ, called a pistil. Once there,
the pollen grains can fertilize the ovules,
or plant eggs, tucked inside.
For a plant-friendly definition then, in
a 2011 review in Current Biology, John
Pannell of the University of Lausanne
in Switzerland and Jamie Moore of the
University of Oxford in England de-
emphasize separate males and females
and describe sexual selection in terms
of “a process that acts to increase mat-
ing success.”
To clarify, this research field is not just
the familiar and huge endeavor to under-
stand how flowers lure, manipulate and
even betray the animals carrying pollen
from he parts to she parts. Tactics of pol-
lination have a long and distinguished
tradition of study dating back to the
Big D himself. Despite these glorious
shenanigans of blooms and birds and
bees, plant sex is really plant-to-plant.
Choices, choices
Only a tiny (though colorful) minority
of botanists use the word “brain” for a
plant part. So in considering how sexual
selection might work out in plants, “I
think it was hard for people to see how a
Evening the odds Female flower parts may be able to influence their mix of suitors by delaying the starting gun that sends pollen racing toward
female sex cells. without this delay, the first pollen grains to land may sire most of the seeds. but with a delay, more grains get to be fathers.
Without delay
pollen
Female
sex cells
Future
seeds
With delay
pollen
Female
sex cells
Future
seeds
t. dubÉ
