Kew Gardens, yes, *Kew Gardens*, says plants have "gender" not "sex"

[MmePoppySeedDefage]

I have been a member of Kew Gardens for a while. Every so often I get a magazine from them, and this unscientific bilge was in the latest edition. I've written and from the swift reply, obviously others have too. They mutter about fungus:

Thank you for your email. As part of Queer Nature, we explore how queer people find themselves in nature, and how a closer look at nature through a queer lens can challenge many pre-existing ideas about what is ‘natural’ and ‘unnatural’.

While we recognise that human sexual identities cannot be applied to nature, we want to celebrate the fact that, as in humans, there is huge diversity in the natural world. Many plants and fungi have characteristics that do not fit within traditional forms of categorisation. Some examples include:
• Avocado - is one example of many plants which is fertilised when its own pollen finds its way from the stamens into the ovule, meaning it can ‘self-pollinate’
• Ruizia Mauritiana - found in the Temperate House at Kew, this plant can change the flowers it produces based on temperature
• Some citrus and many other flowering plants produce seeds by apomixis, they reproduce without fertilisation and, in effect, are asexual.

• Liverworts – these can reproduce asexually by means of gemmae, which means a single cell, or a mass of cells, or a modified bud of tissue, that detaches from the parent and develops into a new individual
• Fungi - Fungi don’t have what we would refer to as biological sexes at all. In human terms, they are also the ultimate pansexuals, engaging in sexual reproduction with any compatible member of their own species.
• The Splitgill mushroom (Schizophyllum commune) has been found to have more than 23,000 mating types.

Fucking hell. The world's gone mad.

The unscientific bilge was in the photo. The rest was stating facts about fungi which is undoubtedly true but helps humans not one whit.

Has to be a joke, surely (please?!)

😂The gift that keeps on giving.
An ideology that has the power to transform allegedly intelligent people into delusional fools displaying toddler level fantasies & beliefs.

Have these people only just heard that there are other forms of reproduction than sexual?

Why do they think that the existence of other forms of reproduction in other species means humans don't reproduce sexually?

Queer Nature … how queer people find themselves in nature … JFC

Event last week.

Nature's Diversity

5x15 is delighted to announce a new events partnership with Rathbones, in collaboration with Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Focussing on the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, the series will address some of the most urgent questions of our time from new and unexpected angles.

Join us this evening for the first event in the new series: a celebration of Nature's Diversity, which explores how nature can teach us to challenge traditional expectations. From plants and fungi living outside orthodoxies, to the symbolic connections between plants and queerness through LGBTQ+ history, and the stories of writers and artists who have been drawn to nature, our expert panel of scientists and storytellers will illuminate how the natural world can inspire new ways of thinking.

There's nowt so queer as nature apparently😂

Temperature-dependent sex determination is 'queer' now? How silly.

Fungi are the ultimate pansexuals 😂. Tell that to Year 9s.

It's absolutely not a joke, they've had a month long festival on at Kew called Queer Nature which ends next week:

www.kew.org/kew-gardens/whats-on/queer-nature

I was at Kew last week (although not for this), and saw lots of posters/signs/billboards around the place about it.

I can't help feeling that if I started explaining to a friend who's a lesbian that I see her sexuality as comparable to that of a fungus, she'd never speak to me again.

If she explained to me that seeing the range of reproductive strategies in nature made her feel more included in society, I guess I would listen, so maybe thats the way to take it. I'd be pretty cast down that something as disconnected as that really felt like it helped though.

I'd write back saying, "All that is absolutely fascinating but has nothing to do with "queer people", who can only reproduce by combining a male's small gamete with a female's large one. This is the same in all mammals. I realise plants are your specialism and not animals, but this is fairly basic scientific knowledge."

I was there today and popped into the temperate house to take a look and it’s really quite meh and a bit rubbish. The central hanging display is rather bland , most people were barely looking at it. Last year they had a Mexico festival which was vibrant, colourful, fun with a live band at weekends. This year was very disappointing!
I personally think they should stick to celebrating countries rather than politics. They’ve done Japan prior to Mexico which was beautiful.

I'm sure your lesbian friend understands as well as anyone that if she wants to reproduce she will need a sperm donor and that no amount of inclusiveness in human society or symbolic representation in the plant world will change that.

Happily the building wasn’t festooned in pride flags and there was some children entertainers outside and they were plant and animals costumes not drag queens thank goodness.

So Kew Garden’s response to the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss is …… Queer Nature.

Erm….

I’m not quite sure how that’s going to help…..

Plants are amazing and fascinating but they’re not mammals and human sexuality/behaviour/foibles are irrelevant to them.

I don’t know why you would need to always refer things back to humans to find it incredible or worth knowing about.

It's dumbing down innit?

What a load of absolute bollocks, queer nature my arse.

fungi don't really have a sex, therefore men who say they are women are always right, impeccable logic.

Ok, but if your friend said that, wouldn't you be a bit worried about her, psychologically?

In reality probably no one really thinks that way, but even the way people are talking now about representation in human endevours seems over the top a lot of the time, as if it is creating limits that weren't there before, and as if people cannot be inspired by those who don't share all of their political identity characteristics.

Yes I think I would be worried... she was brought up in such a homophobic family though that I hope I'd listen to anything that made her feel better about loving women. This was not 100 years ago or anything but she has a brother who has cut off contact with her purely because of her sexuality and another who will just about tolerate seeing her for short periods.

I mean, I can't imagine that this sort of shit from Kew is the slightest bit helpful, either for her or them. But I suppose it's just possible that if you are rabidly homophobic and believe nonsense , this sort of opposite nonsense could somehow crack your carapace.

Or men who say they are women are actually fungi.

"From plants and fungi living outside orthodoxies" What orthodoxies? The plants are just doing what they've evolved to do.

A gay friend suggested a date at one of the queer events. I declined. I'm not queer, just an old-fashioned bisexual.

But does the average toadstool use a nitcomb? (thread passim re Mary Rose!)

Labels are applied through a cognitive process. I can choose to call myself queer (though I don't) and other people can choose to call me queer (though they don't, and I'd rather they didn't). Some men can choose to call themselves women (though they'd be wrong). These are all choices based on a cognitive process with which other people may or may not agree.

Now, there are more things In Heaven and Earth than we can comprehend and all that. And I could be wrong, but I don't think that the average fungus is applying any sort of cognitive process to itself or to its vegetational neighbours. It's not choosing to define itself as queer, or indeed any other aspect of the polysexual alphabet soup.

So who are we to call them queer? Are we misgendering them?

(TFIC!)