Are you as ignorant as me?

Perhaps there is a species that is only fruit bearing every X many years? I do not know about holly, but I know my aunt’s trees are only fruit bearing every other year. If that were the case, some could be on the fruit cycle while others are not.

Plants have sexes (male, female) just like people. Females bear fruit.
This goes back a bit longer than 100 years :-)

Most trees are hermaphrodite, which is to say their flowers contain both male and female organs and can self-pollinate. All apple trees, for instance, can bear fruit.

Holly is an example of a diclinous tree, meaning that individual trees are either male or female. Both must be within pollinating range for the female tree to bear fruit.

Harp got it right. Just out of curiosity, how did you come to know this?

Just one of those random scraps that my brain has managed to hold onto for no good reason. Meanwhile, stuff I’m supposed to remember, like tomorrow’s work appointments, blip out the back door.

@Harp: I hear ya. I can tell you what happened on a TV show i watched when I was five, but not if I’m meeting someone for a study session this weekend.

When you claim ignorance, are you talking about a lack of common sense, or a lack of factual knowledge, because those are two very different things. Just because people seem knowledgeable in things you’ve never heard about doesn’t necessarily make them smarter than you. Maybe they just had an opportunity in life to learn about something that you didn’t. Don’t be fooled by random information that other people might dangle in front of you. After all, Fluther knows better than anyone that everyone has their own area of expertise!

@Foolaholic

Great answer.

Also bear in mind that on the internet its easy to pass off the ability to find something on Google or Wikipedia as something you already knew.

@Foolaholic,
My concern is that in general the public is losing contact with nature. I imagine that this kind of thing was common knowledge not all that long ago.

While I am at it, let me give a plug for the place where I learned about holly trees. In Bucks County just north of Philadelphia is a wonderful place called Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve. If you ever visit Philadelphia for a few days it is worth a side trip. BHWP is considered an outdoor museum. On their 134 acres they plant and maintain local wildflower species. I believe there is only one other similar place in the U.S.

They give lectures and daily tours except in winter. One other thing that I learned is that there is a lot of folklore surrounding many of the plants, mostly related to supposed medicinal uses. What this means is that people were on a familiar first name basis with these plants, which I doubt most people these days get much of a chance to see.

I work with a very intelligent woman, an engineer, in her 40s who asked me the other day, “I saw a beautiful bird in our backward, mostly blue with some black and white; any idea what it was?” I couldn’t believe that anyone could live to adulthood in the Midwest and not know what a Blue Jay was.

@ LostinParadise,

I see what you’re saying. In that sense it seems to me that you’re talking about the common knowledge curve. I would say that people learn what they think they need to know in order to properly move through life. I’m sure that something like that would have been common knowledge, and I would totally agree that our modern technological society is loosing touch with nature. The problem is that, even through the information is there to learn, at outdoor preserves and on the internet, people won’t go looking for it unless they feel compelled. Instead, they research computer technology or the economy, something that they can use to get ahead in a society so hell-bent on racing forward as fast as we can. On the other hand, if you work at a nature preserve, you might be obligated or compelled to learn more about the environment around you, in order to be more informational for visitors.
I see your point in this question, but remember that there is an unheard of amount of information floating around in the world today, and only a tiny iota of it applies to us and our everyday lives. That doesn’t necessarily make us ignorant, just selective.

@Harp, bwaha hey it happens, I come across book smart people but absolutely idiots all the time, i’ve come the conclusion that i’m not very book smart, but have common sense.

Or as most people call it, book smart versus street smart.. personally it isn’t really “street smart” but rather common sense that can be applied in all sorts of directions giving a little thought…

The ground has too much acid.I guess.