• Question: How is sex determined in dioecious plants?

    Asked by devan to Bob, Katie, Nisha, Sallie, Vee on 29 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Sallie Baxendale

      Sallie Baxendale answered on 29 Jun 2012:

      Dioeceous plants produce male and female flowers on separate plants. Only about 5% of plants are dioecious, but ones we would be familiar with are willows and stinging nettles. Sex determination is by sex chromosomes similar to those in animals, males are XY and females are XX.

    • Photo: Bob Bonwick

      Bob Bonwick answered on 2 Jul 2012:

      Very much the same way as humans, how ever the plants cannot activly mate, they depend on insects to cross fertalise.

    • Photo: Vee Mitchell

      Vee Mitchell answered on 2 Jul 2012:

      The plants are distinctively male or female – so the male plants pollen but no seeds and the female planets produce seeds but no pollen. Both types of plant produce flowers to attract bees and insects to do the pollinating for them – the female plant will usually bear the fruit. The Holly tree is also an example of this type of plant

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