Dr Ann Jones

Why is extraordinary conception an apparent pathway to greatness?

And does any of this actually have a basis in biology?

You know, sexual reproduction, but without having sex with someone else.

I think that some of the most flexible lovers in all of the world are plant lovers.

Dr Michael Whitehead would know.

He's an evolutionary ecologist whose PhD focused on sexual deception in plants.

Yeah, so it makes sense that we give them to each other when we're trying to bang, right?

Heteronormative plant alert.

I find this funny and ironic that cannabis adheres to traditional gender roles.

But the vast majority of plants are not like this.

Which brings in the whole question of fertilising yourself or, alternatively, trying to avoid doing that.

In plants, self-fertilisation is called selfing.

So on one hand, fertilising yourself is super convenient, say, if you wash up on a remote island with no other plants in sight.

But it can lead to what is called inbreeding depression, where you multiply your bad genes and you wind up with offspring that are unfit, that can't grow as well, or they're not able to flower or something like that.

Side note, because plants are generally rooted...

It means that they can't go and find themselves a mate.

So they have to co-opt a helper to do that.

A helper of a completely different species.

Or perhaps even the wind.

The majority of plant sex acts are threesomes.