New Discoveries In Underwater Plant Sex

Plants living underwater can't count on pollinating insects to get it on. The prevailing theory has been that pollen moves underwater simply by floating around in water currents. But a team of researchers co-led by Dr. Vivianne Solís-Weiss, have discovered a helper organism pitching in to pollinate seagrasses: marine worms. In today's episode, Vivianne tells Short Wave Scientist in Residence Regina G. Barber how she happened to catch these worms, called polychaetes, in the act of pollinating seagrass flowers underwater, and how the discovery is shedding new light on evolution in the oceans.

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