In the game of evolution, the winners are those who successfully manage to survive and reproduce, and one of the best ways to do the latter is sexually. If you simply made perfect copies of yourself, there wouldn't be enough genetic diversity in your offspring to be protected against newly evolving pressures. Sexual reproduction provides some of the shuffling necessary for the evolution of successful adaptations by providing some genetic diversity. Of course, if you're human, you kind of have the gist of how sexual reproduction takes place.
But how would you manage to have sex if you were a plant and were consigned for life to remain in the same place? Well, Jonathan Drori is here in this fascinating
TEDTalk Presentation to explain and show some of the incredible adaptations that plants have evolved in order to make sure that their seeds pay their evolutionary dividends. As you'll see, many of their strategies involve getting other species (insects, birds and even humans) to unwittingly behave in ways that benefit the genetic interests of the plants.
And the plants, of course, don't care whether they achieve their ends through voluntary cooperation, bribery, force, deceit or brainwashing...
And if you want to see Darwin's moth,
check it out
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