Plant sex - nocturnal exhibition at the Succulent Collection in Zurich
As part of the Scientainment programme "Nachtaktiv" for young people between 16 and 25 years of age, the event "Plant Sex" took place at the Succulent Collection in Zurich. The topic was the reproduction of plants – presented in an entertaining and at the same time scientifically sound way. Plants cannot actively search for partners themselves. This has given rise to the most bizarre forms of mating. From cuddly sex to rubbing insects on flowers, it's all there.
Students and Scientists explained different types of fertilization and showed how plants prepare for sex. Three of those presenters came from our group: Adrian Gonzalo, Aditya Nayak and Maria Drzewicz.
For the young people who visited the exhibition, the team from the Bomblies lab explained how mating takes place in plants and what can go wrong when chromosomes are not separated properly during the plant mating events. To make it easier for the audience, we had a booth where the youngsters could look at stained pollen grains from plants to understand how polyploidization could lead to decreased pollen viability.
We also brought in some real-life examples where we use polyploidization to our advantage, like growing bananas that have no seeds (by the way did you know bananas had huge seeds and less fleshy parts) and polyploid strawberries which are much bigger than the wild strawberries we find in the mountains.
