Sometimes the males and females of a species can look really different from each other. This is pretty common in animals (think peacocks), but there are some plant species out there with extreme sexual dimorphism! And now scientists think they have a pretty good idea how and why this happens,
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Sources:
Thumbnail Image Credit:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leucadendron_rubrum_m_Nicola_van_Berkel_4.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Leucadendron_rubrum#/media/File:Leucadendron_rubrum_f_Nicola_van_Berkel_1.jpg
Sexual dimorphism in flowering plants (2012)
https://academic.oup.com/jxb/article/64/1/67/631641
Canopy seed storage is associated with sexual dimorphism in the woody dioecious genus Leucadendron (2010)
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-2745.2009.01623.x
Causes of secondary sexual differences in plants — Evidence from extreme leaf dimorphism in Leucadendron (Proteaceae) (2010)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0254629910001481?via%3Dihub
Fynbos info: https://www.worldwildlife.org/ecoregions/at1202
Pollination https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK9991/
Dimorphism sources
https://academic.oup.com/jxb/article/66/20/6083/552631
http://www.plantcell.org/content/plantcell/1/8/737.full.pdf
Hosted by: Rose Bear Don't Walk
SciShow has a spinoff podcast! It's called SciShow Tangents. Check it out at http://www.scishowtangents.org
----------
Support SciShow by becoming a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scishow
----------
Huge thanks go to the following Patreon supporters for helping us keep SciShow free for everyone forever:
Silas Emrys, Drew Hart, Jeffrey Mckishen, James Knight, Christoph Schwanke, Jacob, Matt Curls, Christopher R Boucher, Eric Jensen, Adam Brainard, Nazara Growing Violet, Ash, Laura Sanborn, Sam Lutfi, Piya Shedden, Katie Marie Magnone, Scott Satovsky Jr, charles george, Alex Hackman, Chris Peters, Kevin Bealer, Alisa Sherbow
----------
Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet?
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/scishow
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/scishow
Tumblr: http://scishow.tumblr.com
Instagram: http://instagram.com/thescishow
----------
Sources:
Thumbnail Image Credit:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leucadendron_rubrum_m_Nicola_van_Berkel_4.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Leucadendron_rubrum#/media/File:Leucadendron_rubrum_f_Nicola_van_Berkel_1.jpg
Sexual dimorphism in flowering plants (2012)
https://academic.oup.com/jxb/article/64/1/67/631641
Canopy seed storage is associated with sexual dimorphism in the woody dioecious genus Leucadendron (2010)
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-2745.2009.01623.x
Causes of secondary sexual differences in plants — Evidence from extreme leaf dimorphism in Leucadendron (Proteaceae) (2010)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0254629910001481?via%3Dihub
Fynbos info: https://www.worldwildlife.org/ecoregions/at1202
Pollination https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK9991/
Dimorphism sources
https://academic.oup.com/jxb/article/66/20/6083/552631
http://www.plantcell.org/content/plantcell/1/8/737.full.pdf
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