Self-incompatibility in plants

Self-incompatibility in plants means that a plant can’t have babies with itself. Plants can only have babies with other plants that have different genes. It’s like a plant version of not wanting to date someone in your own family. When a plant has babies with itself, the babies don’t grow healthy and strong because the genes in the mom and the dad are too much alike. This is why it’s important that plants find other plants with different genes to have babies with. Think of it like two different colors mixing together to make a new and special color!