Single-sex flowers release his, hers fragrances
Growing on the same tree, male blooms smell different from female blooms
By Susan Milius
With the right tropical tree, a quick sniff can tell the boy flowers from the girls.
These Glochidion and Phyllanthus species separate their sex organs into male-only and female-only clusters of flowers. Even a human nose easily identifies the sex, says Tomoko Okamoto of the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute in Tsukuba, Japan.
Many flowers of a single species smell similar, if not identical. After all, they need to lure the same pollinator. Among the double-odor trees, however, clarifying the sex of the flower might serve their pollinators’ unusual needs, Okamoto and her colleagues suggest October 22 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.