This is the Botany Photo of the Day from The University of British Columbia Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research. The organism is the fungus Schizophyllum commune which is reported to have 28,000 sexes according to Tom Volk's Fungus of the Month for February 2000. Check out the Botany Photo of the Day blog for a much better picture.
In some parts of the world sex is legally restricted to arrangements involving single members of specified gender. I wonder which sexes of Schizophyllum commune would qualify? Personally, I think that members of sex 408 should be allowed to marry members of sex 12,105 but all other marriages are immoral and should be illegal.
I'm no expert on the sex lives of fungi, but my understanding is that in organisms with lots of sexes the rule is that you can mate with anyone of a different sex. So although an individual Schizophyllum commune has lots of scope for finding partners it still can't engage in a homosexual relationship.
ReplyDeleteSo although an individual Schizophyllum commune has lots of scope for finding partners it still can't engage in a homosexual relationship.
DeleteWhat a pity... :(
Yeah you can, you'll just have to adopt.
ReplyDelete