ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Gynodioecy

Gynodioecy means that some plants have girl parts and some plants have girl parts and boy parts. Just like how people can be boys or girls or both.

In gynodioecy, the plants with both girl and boy parts are called "hermaphrodites" and the plants with only girl parts are called "females". This is different from most plants, where all the flowers on a plant have both girl and boy parts.

The female plants can still make babies because they can make seeds by themselves. But the hermaphrodite plants can also make babies by pollinating themselves or by getting pollen from other hermaphrodites.

Scientists are still trying to figure out why some plants evolved to have this kind of gender variation. It might have to do with different strategies for making babies in different environments, or maybe it's just random chance!
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