These Plants Are the Same Species

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,

Hosted by: Rose Bear Don't Walk

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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