Flowers are Sexy
Iowa State University horticulture newsletter has a great explanation of just how sexual reproduction impacts fruits, vegetables and berries. Horticulture and Home Pest News is a product of the Extension Service. Here's an excerpt from the article by By Cindy Haynes, Department of Horticulture: Monoecious and Dioecious These botanical terms are terms used to describe the reproductive behavior of some plants. Perfect in a botanical sense means that each flower has both male and female parts in the same structure. Lilies, roses, and apple flowers are perfect. Monoecious plants have male flowers and female flowers in separate structures on the same plant. Mono means one – and monoecious is literally one house. The same plant houses different flowers – some being male the others being female. Squash is monoecious . If you take a close look at squash flowers you can soon tell which are female because they have a tiny fruit at the base. For obvious reasons, the male flowers don...