Photo: Orchid Has "Active" Sex With Itself -- A Flower First?

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An illustration and accompanying photographs show how the agile Chinese orchid Holcoglossum amesianum fertilizes itself.

While many species of flowering plants can self-pollinate, the newfound flower is the first known plant in which pollination is entirely self-directed.

Photographs and illustration courtesy LaiQiang Huang, Tsinghua University Graduate School at Shenzhen/Nature

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