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Name: Justin C.
Grade: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: N/A
Question:
I was bored in class today, so I was surfing the Internet. I came upon something I could not believe, so I thought I would ask. In a discussion about the Giant Dion (cycad), I learned that they have male and female. Then it said that if one of the pairs of plants dies, unless another one of the gender that dies soon sprouts, the other one (opposite gender) dies. I found that hard to believe. Still harder to believe was that the male plant can change its temperature! I did not think that plants could regulate their temperature. How does it do it?

Replies:
Yes, thermoregulation is known to occur in different species of plants:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoregulation#Thermoregulation_in_plants

You might be referring to this article about cycads which appeared in October 2007:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071004143133.htm

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/318/5847/70

Anthony R. Brach, PhD
Missouri Botanical Garden
c/o Harvard University Herbariam


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