Bent stigmas in the perfect flowers of the monoecious Jatropha curcas promote automatic self-pollination

A perfect flower with stigma bent over an anther. Scale bar 1cm.

by Y. Vaknin, Y. Samocha and D. Eisikowitch

The occurrence of perfect flowers alongside staminate and pistillate ones, in the monoecious biodiesel plant Jatropha curcas L., was previously reported as rare and often dismissed as having no specific functionality.  

Here we report that perfect flowers were almost exclusive to the beginning of the blooming season and were directly associated with stigmas bending over fertile anthers, as early as in the mature bud stage. It is our premise, that the occurrence of perfect flowers with bent stigmas promotes automatic self-pollination in a period when conditions are unfavorable for pollination.

Read the whole summary in: Hebrew!
Read the scientific publication in JPE.