Solving the puzzle of mirror-image flowers
- 1 June 2002
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Nature in Nature
- Vol. 417 (6890) , 707
- https://doi.org/10.1038/417707a
Abstract
Enantiostyly is a plant sexual polymorphism in which female sex organs are deflected to the left or right -- resulting in 'mirror-image' flowers -- but, although it occurs in at least a dozen unrelated families of flowering plants, its adaptive significance has been unclear. Here we show that a mendelian locus governs the inheritance of style orientation and that this curious form of sexual asymmetry functions to promote cross-pollination in bee-pollinated plants.Keywords
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