A baby avocado plant
Avocado plants are different from trees and plants that have a distinct male and female identities, with the males' flowers sending out pollen to fertilize the females' flowers. Rather, they are hermaphroditic, but have a complex system of blooming and fertilization that includes two distinct types of avocado plants. Does this Spark an idea?
Avocado Types
Avocado plants aren't one sex or the other. Instead, they are classified as type A avocado plants and type B avocado plants, each with its own blooming pattern.
Both Male and Female
Both type A and type B avocado plants bloom with flowers that have both male and female flower parts. However, each flower displays its female characteristics and its male characteristics at different times rather than concurrently.
Type A's
Type A avocado trees include the Hass, Gwen and Reed cultivars. Type A trees have flowers that open as females on the morning of their first day of bloom and then close to open as males in the afternoon of their second day of bloom.
Type B's
Type B avocado trees include the Ettinger, Bacon and Fuerte cultivars. These have flowers that are similar to type A flowers except that they open as females in the afternoon of their first day of bloom and as males in the morning of their second day of bloom.
Purpose
The purpose of this type A and type B difference in blooming time allows the plants to fertilize one another. For example, a type A bloom in the afternoon of its second day open will be a male. It will be able to fertilize a type B bloom that just opened for the first time that same afternoon as a female.
Successful Fertilization
While this plant biology makes successful fertilization of flowers and thus fruiting optimal when there are both types of avocado plant present, an avocado plant's clockwork-like blossoming pattern becomes more chaotic when temperatures drop below 70 degrees Fahrenheit, allowing for possible self-pollination.
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