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CrowdScience: Do Plants Talk about Sex?

Do Plants Talk about Sex?

29/06/2018 GMT

BBC World Service - CrowdScience, Do Plants Talk about Sex?

Plants do communicate, but what are they talking about? Sex seems a likely answer

Plants reproduce sexually, and they communicate with each other in a variety of ways. So it seems likely that sex is top of the agenda. CrowdScience investigates.

Sex – for most organisms - is about meeting the right partner. But what if you and your mate are stuck far apart with no ability to travel? This dilemma could put a bit of a downer on your sex life, but is faced by plants everywhere. Presenter Anand Jagatia uncovers the happy fact that not only have plants overcome this problem, they positively excel at it. From hay fever to honey, the sexual strategies of plants affect us daily, and we couldn’t live without their success. In this episode, CrowdScience is answering the questions you sent after a previous episode entitled ‘Can plants talk?’ which explored the way plants and trees use a fungal network to communicate. This time, we explore how plants ‘feel’ bees as they fly past, and more complex communication involving the ‘wood wide web’.

Presenter Anand Jagatia
Producer: Rory Galloway

(Image: A yellow dandelion flower attracts a pollinator in the evening sunlight. Credit: Getty Images)

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