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Article: Plants make big stink.(too weird)
- Article from:
- Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication
- Article date:
- January 4, 2008
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Weekly Reader Corp. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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[ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED]
BRISBANE FOREST PARK, Australia -- The Australian cycad plant is like a dude who douses himself in too much AXE. It's a real turn off.
Cycads are gymnosperms--cone-bearing plants--and morn than 300 species exist around the world. The male cycad produces pollen that must be carried to the female cycad to fertilize the eggs. For years, scientists thought that the wind performed that job. But a team of U.S. and Australian scientists recently found that for one species of cycad (Macrozamia lucida) that grows in Australia, the pollination process is trickier than that.
The trunk of the cycad is located largely in the soil. ...