SEX, FLOWERS AND SPECIESSpeaker: Phil Garnock-Jones – Emeritus Professor, Victoria University of Wellington
The age-old question of how to define species seems no closer to becoming settled science. But regardless of how we recognise species, we can be sure that sex and mating are at the heart of what a species is. For flowering plants, that focuses our attention on flowers, as we have done since Linnaeus first made known the nature of plant sexuality and applied it to taxonomy. Flowers are complex structures comprising multiple organs that (mostly) work together to bring about mating. And although unisexual plant gametophytes (female embryo sacs and male pollen grains) produce the eggs and sperms, sporophyte plants and the flowers they bear can express their sexuality along an axis from strictly female, through more common hermaphrodites, to strictly male. Unfortunately for taxonomists, flowers are short-lived and—worse—they lose their shape and colour when pressed. I’ll use close-up photography to demonstrate the remarkable diversity of form and function in some New Zealand flowers and relate it to Tony Druce’s prime interest: species taxonomy.
Event Venue
Murphy Building, MYLT101, 36 Kelburn Pde, Kelburn, Wellington 6012, New Zealand,Wellington, New Zealand
