Everglades plant is he, then she, then he

From Mobile, Ala., at the Botany 2003 meeting

The signature plant of the Everglades switches gender twice during a week of flowering, according to a Florida study. This synchronized sex change may prevent self-fertilization except in a reproductive emergency.

Great sweeps of sawgrass (Cladium jamaicense) inspired the region’s nickname, “river of grass,” although botanists classify the plant not as a grass but as a sedge, explains Jenise M.