#  A hot story about plant sex 

 





Junior Fellow Wendy Valencia Montoya and Senior Fellow Naomi Pierce were featured in the *Harvard Gazette* for their work on a research study that shows infrared radiation from plants serves as invitation to pollinating insects.



 

December 12, 2025

 

 

The new [**study**](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adz1728), published in a cover story in Science, shows that infrared radiation is a pollination signal, one far older than the vivid colors that later became dominant among flowering plants.

Read the full [Harvard Gazette article](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2025/12/first-male-gets-heated-up-then-female-and-then-you-know/?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20Gazette%2020251215%20(1)&spMailingID=36122952&spUserID=MTU4MzM0Nzk1MTcwS0&spJobID=3043434808&spReportId=MzA0MzQzNDgwOAS2).

 ![Nicholas Bellono (from left), Wendy Valencia Montoya, and Naomi Pierce](/sites/g/files/omnuum12196/files/2025-12/112025_Pollination_024_2.jpg)

 



 

 

 



 

 

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