Helen Mirren says tomatoes are ‘bisexual.’ It’s a bit more complicated

Tomatoes are bisexual, according to Dame Helen Mirren. But is it actually true?

During a segment on The Tonight Show, Mirren shared that she learned the flowers on tomato vines are “bisexual” while making salsa with The Thursday Murder Club co-star Pierce Brosnan.

Mirren isn’t exactly right about the terminology, though. Tomatoes are cosexual, which means that a tomato plant has both pistils and stamens within the same flower. It’s a common trait of flowering plants that allows for the ability to self-pollinate. 

But there is something queer about tomatoes! Back in the 1970s, scientists in Australia were confused by the Dungowan Bush Tomato plant because of its ability to vary between male, female or neither throughout its life—rather than having a static expression of its sex like most other tomatoes.
The plant was later named Solanum plastisexum in 2019, translated to plastic or malleable sex, and defined as a distinct species with sexual conditions outside of the typical binary. We look into the surprising queerness of the humble fruit.