which have turned out to belong to the same species.

Touhou girls lay eggs.

Yukkuri hatch out.

Each yukkuri grows a flower stem with multiple flowers. These flowers are hermaphroditic, i.e. they have both gynoeciums and stamina (stamens).

The yukkuri flowers pollinate each other and develop into fruits. The pollen is usually distributed by small fairies.

Once a fruit has reached the shape of a complete minigirl, it is ripe and falls. In order to avoid injuries, the yukkuri go to hibernate to quiet, moss-covered woodland areas and other suitable environments for this period.

The yukkuri do not parent their offspring. Most minigirls are consumed by wild youkai before they grow into human-sized children. Preventing Touhou girl overpopulation is, in fact, the key role played by the carnivorous youkai in the ecology of Gensoukyou. (Friendly youkai are just mutants.)

Driven by instinct and, in many cases, cultural conventions, adult Touhou girls go searching for children to bring up. This may manifest in anything between aimless wanderings in nearby forests, apparently just seeking solitude, and highly organized group expeditions to faraway regions.

Once an adult Touhou girl has adopted a child, a strong hormonal reaction is triggered, which leads to laying yukkuri eggs. A Touhou girl may adopt one or more children at a time, but cannot usually lay eggs more often than once a year. Most Touhou girls only lay eggs once, twice or three times during their lifespans, but a small minority (mainly consisting of rabbit-girls) does it yearly.

adult Touhou girls engage in lots and lots of sexual intercourse among each other, and possibly with the males of Gensokyo's human villages as well. This behavior has nothing to do with breeding. Instead, it may have originated as a means of forming couples (rarely, triples or larger groups) to take care of children more effectively, and to maintain and strengthen attachment once a couple has been formed. Regardless of this, some researchers claim to have observed promiscuous behavioral patterns.