Andromonoecy is a breeding system of plant species in which male and hermaphrodite flowers are on the same plant. [1] It is a monomorphic sexual system comparable with monoecy, gynomonoecy and trimonoecy. [2] Andromonoecy is frequent among genera with zygomorphic flowers, [3] however it is overall rare and occurs in less than 2% of plant species. Nonetheless the breeding system has gained interest among biologists in the study of sex expression. [4]
The word andromonoecious is a combination of andr- (meaning male) and monoecious and was first used in 1877. [5]
Andromonoecy is uncommon and has been estimated to occur in less than 2% of plant species. [4] In angiosperms, it occurs in 1.7% of angiosperms making up around 4000 species in 33 families. [6] [7] It is common in the grass subfamily Panicoideae. [8]
Some authors view andromonoecy as a transitional state from hermaphroditism to monoecy. [11] It has been suggested that andromonoecy evolved from hermaphroditism due to the loss of female structures. [9]
Andromonoecy is also considered an evolutionary step towards dioecy. [15] If female flowers are better at producing seeds than hermaphroditic ones, andromonoecy could evolve towards monoecy. [16]
The Zingiberales are flowering plants forming one of four orders in the commelinids clade of monocots, together with its sister order, Commelinales. The order includes 68 genera and 2,600 species. Zingiberales are a unique though morphologically diverse order that has been widely recognised as such over a long period of time. They are usually large herbaceous plants with rhizomatous root systems and lacking an aerial stem except when flowering. Flowers are usually large and showy, and the stamens are often modified (staminodes) to also form colourful petal-like structures that attract pollinators.
Monocotyledons, commonly referred to as monocots, are grass and grass-like flowering plants (angiosperms), the seeds of which typically contain only one embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. They constitute one of the major groups into which the flowering plants have traditionally been divided; the rest of the flowering plants have two cotyledons and are classified as dicotyledons, or dicots.
Iridaceae is a family of plants in order Asparagales, taking its name from the irises. It has a nearly global distribution, with 69 accepted genera with a total of c. 2500 species. It includes a number of economically important cultivated plants, such as species of Freesia, Gladiolus, and Crocus, as well as the crop saffron.
In botany, a tendril is a specialized stem, leaf or petiole with a threadlike shape used by climbing plants for support and attachment, as well as cellular invasion by parasitic plants such as Cuscuta. There are many plants that have tendrils; including sweet peas, passionflower, grapes and the Chilean glory-flower. Tendrils respond to touch and to chemical factors by curling, twining, or adhering to suitable structures or hosts. Tendrils vary greatly in size from a few centimeters up to 27 inches for Nepenthes harryana The chestnut vine can have tendrils up to 20.5 inches in length. Normally there is only one simple or branched tendril at each node, but the aardvark cucumber can have as many as eight.
In biology, gonochorism is a sexual system where there are only two sexes and each individual organism is either male or female. The term gonochorism is usually applied in animal species, the vast majority of which are gonochoric.
Dioecy is a characteristic of certain species that have distinct unisexual individuals, each producing either male or female gametes, either directly or indirectly. Dioecious reproduction is biparental reproduction. Dioecy has costs, since only the female part of the population directly produces offspring. It is one method for excluding self-fertilization and promoting allogamy (outcrossing), and thus tends to reduce the expression of recessive deleterious mutations present in a population. Plants have several other methods of preventing self-fertilization including, for example, dichogamy, herkogamy, and self-incompatibility.
Panicoideae is the second-largest subfamily of the grasses with over 3,500 species, mainly distributed in warm temperate and tropical regions. It comprises some important agricultural crops, including sugarcane, maize, sorghum, and switchgrass.
Androdioecy is a reproductive system characterized by the coexistence of males and hermaphrodites. Androdioecy is rare in comparison with the other major reproductive systems: dioecy, gynodioecy and hermaphroditism. In animals, androdioecy has been considered a stepping stone in the transition from dioecy to hermaphroditism, and vice versa.
Chaerophyllum bulbosum is a species of flowering plant from the carrot family and known by several common names, including turnip-rooted chervil, tuberous-rooted chervil, bulbous chervil, and parsnip chervil. It is native to Europe and Western Asia. It was a popular vegetable in the 19th century.
A hermaphrodite is a sexually reproducing organism that produces both male and female gametes. Animal species in which individuals are of different sexes, either male or female but not both, are gonochoric, which is the opposite of hermaphroditic.
Gynodioecy is a rare breeding system that is found in certain flowering plant species in which female and hermaphroditic plants coexist within a population. Gynodioecy is the evolutionary intermediate between hermaphroditism and dioecy.
Susanne Sabine Renner is a German botanist. Until October 2020, she was a professor of biology at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich as well as director of the Botanische Staatssammlung München and the Botanischer Garten München-Nymphenburg. Since January 2021, she lives in Saint Louis, where she is an Honorary Professor of Biology at Washington University and a Research Associate at the Missouri Botanical Garden.
Paspaleae is a tribe of the Panicoideae subfamily in the grasses (Poaceae), native mainly to the tropical and subtropical Americas but with a number of species introduced to other regions. It includes roughly 680 species in 39 genera. Species in this tribe use either of the C3 or C4 photosynthetic pathways.
Solanum plastisexum is a species of bush tomato from the Australian monsoon tropics that exhibits "breeding system fluidity" – that is, it has no stable sexual expression. After its first description in 2019, the describers suggested the common name of Dungowan bush tomato, in reference to Dungowan Station where it was collected.
Plant growth analysis refers to a set of concepts and equations by which changes in size of plants over time can be summarised and dissected in component variables. It is often applied in the analysis of growth of individual plants, but can also be used in a situation where crop growth is followed over time.
Erophaca is a monotypic genus of the tribe Galegeae. Its only species, Erophaca baetica, is a perennial plant distributed in disjunct populations in the Mediterranean Region.
Gynomonoecy is defined as the presence of both female and hermaphrodite flowers on the same individual of a plant species. It is prevalent in Asteraceae but is poorly understood.
Monoecy is a sexual system in seed plants where separate male and female cones or flowers are present on the same plant. It is a monomorphic sexual system comparable with gynomonoecy, andromonoecy and trimonoecy, and contrasted with dioecy where individual plants produce cones or flowers of only one sex.
A sexual system is a pattern of sex allocation or a distribution of male and female function across organisms in a species. Terms like reproductive system and mating system have also been used as synonyms.
Trimonoecy, also called polygamomonoecy, is when male, female, and hermaphrodite flowers are on the same plant. Trimonoecy is rare.