Photo by James Gaither licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Meet Fuchsia procumbens aka the creeping Fuchsia. This lovely plant is endemic to New Zealand where, sadly, it is threatened. In its native habitat, it is strictly a coastal species, prefering to grow in sandy soils. The flowers are quite unlike most other members of the genus Fuchshia and they exhibit an interesting flowering strategy.
Fuchsia procumbens produces 3 distinct flower forms, flowers with only working male parts, flowers with only working female parts, and hermaphroditic flowers. One reason for this is to avoid self-pollination. The other reason may have something to do with energy costs. When growing conditions are less than stellar, the plant saves energy by producing male flowers.
Photo by Martin Reith licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
Pollen is relatively cheap after all. When conditions improve, the plant may allocate more resources to female and hermaphroditic flowers. This strategy worries some botanists because it seems like some populations of F. procumbens only ever produce single sex flowers. After pollination, the flowers give way to bright red berries that are larger than the flowers themselves!
The most interesting thing about this species is, despite its apparent specificity in habitat preferences in the wild, it competes well with aggressive grasses, which has made it a very popular ground cover. As it turns out, its growing popularity in the garden trade may save this species from being placed on the endangered species list.