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Helen Mirren Calls Tomatoes ‘Bisexual’ on The Tonight Show and Demonstrates Pollination Tip

Coverage highlights a practical pollination tip with cautions that human sexual categories may misrepresent plant biology.

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Overview

  • Dame Helen Mirren offered a pollination hack on The Tonight Show, telling host Jimmy Fallon that tomatoes are “bisexual” and showing how to gently tremble their flowers.
  • The studio audience reacted with audible gasps and laughter as Fallon awkwardly responded to the trembling demonstration.
  • Botanists define tomato blooms as complete flowers containing both stamens and pistils, making Mirren’s claim technically accurate.
  • Tomatoes typically self-pollinate through wind or insects, though growers often assist by lightly jostling the flowers.
  • Coverage cautioned that using human sexual analogies for plant reproduction can mislead, suggesting “intersex” might be a more precise analogy and noting limited verification of the finger-trembling method.