Try this investigation
- During Winter and Spring, look for a population of Sorrel plants in
flower. Collect flowers from a number of different clumps.
- Open up the flowers and look at the arrangement of male and female
parts inside. You should find similar numbers of three different
arrangements of stamens and pistils (see diagram).
- When a bee visits a flower with a short style, it will collect
pollen from medium and long stamens. If it visits another flower of the
same clone, the pollen will not reach the stigma and self-pollination
will be avoided. Look at the other flowers and see how this mechanism
works in the other cases.
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