Geitonogamy, literally translated as 'neighbour marriage', is a weird pollination strategy followed by a few diehard enthusiasts. It implies pollen is transferred from one neighbour flower to another, but both belonging to the same plant individual. In its most extreme form, geitonogamy is internal, meaning pollen never is exposed to the ambient environment.
In my aquatic plant project, I'm currently working with the genus
Callitriche Water Star-worts, amongst which a number of species have various forms of geitonogamy, including the internal one. Perhaps this is seen in the perspective of evolution as a fail-safe way of ensuring fruits are developed in a very unpredictable environment? Genetic diversity is exchanged for a better chance of survival and continued existence at a given location.
For geitonogamy to work, the two flowers involved obviously have to have female and male parts. In the depicted example below, of a
Callitriche hamulata, both flowers in the leaf axil were female and thus the one flower initiating the geitonogamous process, by extending its style towards its neighbour, is given marks for trying without knowing going into a same-sex relationship
However enticing "lesbian" sex may be, there will be no fruit in this case.
Nikon Z7 with the Laowa 25mm f/2.8 lens, 5X magnification, scale bar 1mm. The Laowa has a dedicated LED ring light which runs on USB power, very handy for working in the field. Around 40 frames stacked in Zerene.
