For the previous week or so, the wild thought that prime concentrations of “male trees” in cities are the rationale that individuals expertise intense allergic reactions has been gaining renewed traction in sure circles on-line. This and the idea of solely “male” bushes being planted in cities with the intention to rob urbanites of free fruit from “female” bushes could sound a bit ridiculous to you, as a result of they’re. While the dude-equivalent to bushes may not be an precise factor in actuality, there are literally fairly a number of notable ones featured in fantasy and sci-fi.

Here in the actual world, the huge majority of bushes and different vegetation shouldn’t have the form of sexual dimorphism generally seen in animals. Hermaphroditic vegetation most frequently reproduce by means of pollination, the method by which pollen (primarily plant sperm) is transferred to a flower’s stigma (the elements that ultimately produce fruits, which comprise seeds). While some vegetation are pollinated with the assistance of bugs, many—like bushes—depend on the wind, which is especially efficient at transferring pollen particles round. But to ensure that wind pollination to be efficient, vegetation have to supply large quantities of pollen as a result of it’s in the end a sport of probability, and vegetation haven’t any means of homing in on each other for exact, direct copy. These are the kinds of issues one learns in fundamental biology, however it’s straightforward for folks to get caught up in bad science at a time when misinformation runs rampant on social media.

But again to the enjoyable sort of fiction, the place some fictional bushes have sonorous voices and splendid beards you’re in all probability acquainted with. Let’s rank some, lets?