Some Plants Are Simply Female

Female spicebush with berries, 25 Sept 2017 (photo by Kate St. John)

21 November 2024

In the garden we often grow “perfect” flowers such as roses, lilies and tulips with male and female parts in every flower. However, many woody shrubs and trees have single sex flowers. Some species grow both sexes on the same tree, others have only one sex on an entire plant. And so, some plants are simply female.

Compare this “perfect” bisexual flower diagram …

Diagram of a flower with both female and male parts (image from Wikimedia Commons)

… to single sex flowers.

Diagrams of female and male flowers (altered from the perfect flower on Wikimedia Commons)

Monoecious species have both flower sexes on the same plant. Examples include hickory and pecan trees, cucumbers and pumpkins, cherries, common grape vine and corn (maize).

Dioecious plants produce only male or female flowers on individual plants and only the female plants produce fruit. Examples include gingkos (stinky fruit from female trees!) …

Fruit and fallen leaves from a female gingko tree (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

… and holly trees –> You can’t get holly berries if you have only one tree.

Holly leaves and berries (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Knowing this, you can sex dioecious plants in the fall. And here we are with spicebush.

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