News Plants

Hermaphrodite wildflower has its own battle of the sexes

What’s best for the floral male bits clashes with what’s best for female parts

wildflower

SEXUAL CONFLICT  The male and female organs in each white bloom of the wildflower called starry campion are locked in an evolutionary war of parenthood.

Tom Potterfield/Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

PORTLAND, Ore. — Petals of wildflowers called starry campions may be a pretty little battleground for a sexual skirmish between the plant’s male and female parts.