In article , Nick Maclaren
writes
In article ,
Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote:

In some dioecious plants vestigial stamens are present in female plants,
and vestigial styles in male plants. A quick Googling failed to find a
description of the state in Pernettya mucronata. An article in the
American Journal of Botany describes Pernettya rigida as cryptically
dioecious; one might suspect that P. mucronata of being the same.

The mind boggles - thanks for the education. I knew about the plants
that are undecided whether to be monoecious or dioecious, but I never
suspected the existence of cryptically dioecious ones ....

Sex is pretty confused in some vertebrates (and I am not referring to
Michael Jackson, here), but flowering plants make vertebrates look
simple. I haven't yet heard of a plant with three sexes, but I wouldn't
be flabberghasted to hear that there is one.

Charles Darwin, in "Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same
Species" describes the common ash, Fraxinus excelsior, as trioecious.

URL:http://pages.britishlibrary.net/char...forms_of_flowe
rs/flowers00.htm

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Stewart Robert Hinsley