Parents who are biologically aware may have started discussing the birds and the bees with their children, only to realize that they are really talking about flowers. Bees play a crucial role in plant reproduction by carrying pollen grains from one plant to another, enabling fertilization. Meanwhile, birds help by digesting and excreting the resulting seeds, allowing new blooms to grow.
The exact role that flowers themselves play in their own reproduction has long been a mystery. However, a recent paper published in EMBO Reports by Mizuta Yoko and her colleagues at Nagoya University has shed new light on this process. After a 13-year-long investigation, they were able to reveal the secrets of flower reproduction in unprecedented detail.
One of the key findings of their research was the level of control that a flower’s female sex organs have over the fertilization process. Not only are they able to attract male reproductive cells, but they can also repel them once fertilization has begun. This level of control is a fascinating discovery that adds to our understanding of how flowers reproduce.