Plant Sexuality
Food Chain Radio Show #1025
Michael Olson, Author & Urban Farming Agriculturalist
Sex In the Flower Bed
Guests: Professor Emeritus Lincoln Taiz and Lee Taiz
Co-Authors – Flora Unveiled: The Discovery and Denial of Sex in Plants
Birds do it. Bees do it. Even the flowers and the trees do it. But given how smart we think we are, why did it take us 14,000 years to figure out plants actually do it?
Michael Olson Food Chain Radio – Do Plants Enjoy Sex?
But wait, a huge percentage of us appear to be still in the dark regarding the sex life of plants. Get this…
In 1996, the Pollinarium Exhibit at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. conducted a survey of its visitors to learn how well it was fulfilling its mission of teaching the public about the sexual functions of plants and pollinators. Before seeing the exhibit, 70% of the visitors failed to make the connection between pollen and the sexual reproduction of plants. After seeing the exhibit, with all its bees, butterflies, and beautiful flowers, 70% of the respondents still did not make the connection between pollen and the sexual reproduction of plants.
Though we live midst all the technologies of modern times, many still appear to suffer from a perception problem when it comes to the sex life of plants.
This reluctance to see, and understand, the sex life of plants dates back over 14,000 years to when we homo sapiens began domesticating animals and planting crops. We knew about the sexual reproduction of animals, and used that knowledge to breed into them the traits we desired. We knew plants, on the other hand, to just grow on their own.
The reasons we did not allow for the sexuality of plants varied, and persisted, until objective science finally overcame all the bias and declared, in 1760, that plant’s do have sex.
That it took so long for us to overcome our problems with perception, and that many still do have problems with them, leads to ask…
Leave a comment below: Do plants enjoy sex?
Tune in here, for the syndicated Food Chain Radio Show #1025 August 15, 2015 Saturday 9AM Pacific
