LONDON -- A part of Britain's oldest tree appears to be changing sex from male to female, according to scientists.
Although the Fortingall Yew -- which is located in Perthshire and thought to be up to 5000 years old -- is male, botanist Dr Max Coleman recently made a discovery that suggests a branch of the tree has become female.
The discovery came in the form of three red berries, which are a feature of female yew trees.
Dr Coleman said it was "quite a surprise to me to find a group of three ripe red berries on the Fortingall Yew when the rest of the tree was clearly male," the Independent reports.
"Odd as it may seem, yews, and many other conifers that have separate sexes, have been observed to switch sex," he said. "Normally this switch occurs on part of the crown rather than the entire tree changing sex.
"In the Fortingall Yew it seems that one small branch in the outer part of the crown has switched and now behaves as female."
How common is it for trees to change sex?
As unusual as it may sound, it's actually not uncommon at all.
"I am not sure why the person from the Royal Botanic Garden should be 'surprised' since this behaviour in plants is well documented in the literature," Dr Andrew Cameron, Senior Lecturer in Forestry at the University of Aberdeen, told Mashable.
"The switch from one type to another, or sex switching, is found in a number of plant species," he explained. "The reasons for this may be due to flowering preference at different stages of growth; for example small plants may initially produce one sex of flower (often male) only to change when the plant gets bigger, or the change takes place though the growing season."
Dr Cameron went on to say that only people with appropriate expertise would be able to recognise this condition, meaning the sex switch may have been happening for a very long time without anyone being in a position to recognise it.
"Relative to the age of the tree, the understanding of complex flowering behaviour is recent," he said.