A new species of wild eggplant was discovered in Australia's Lost City in 2009, according to a press release.
Chris Martine of Bucknell University who made the discovery described the plant as "genderbending" and said that the females actually pretend to be male by produce pollen.
"What they're really doing is duping bees into visiting their flowers," Martine said in a statement. "One of the things we're going to do next is study what that means. Do the bees actually get anything from this fake pollen? And, if they don't, that means the plants are actually tricking the bees into doing their bidding, which would be a really neat thing for a plant to do."
The new species is called Solanum cowiei and was discovered in 2009. Martine stumbled across the plant during the course of his research.
Martine was examining varieties of wild eggplants in Australia when he came across the species. DNA tests confirmed the plant was an unknown species. However, Martine lacked the flowers he needed to assign it a scientific name.
Determined to properly identify the species, he returned to Australia last May, hoping to find the eggplants in bloom. He traveled to Litchfield National Park, where Martine had previously spotted the species.
A wildfire had recently scorched the area, making it easier to pick out green sprouts amidst the gray and brown landscape. While combing through the brush, Martine found the wild eggplant with budding flowers.
Martine recently detailed his findings in the journal PhytoKeys.
