Plant sex

Plant sex

Plant sex refers to the presence and distribution of flowers with different sexes in an individual plant.

1    Hermaphroditic: All the flowers of the plant are bisexual.

2    Monoecious (mono-one; oikos-house): Both male and female flowers are present in the same plant Example: Coconut.

3          Dioecious (di-two: oikos-house): Male and Female flowers are present on separate plants. Example: Papaya, Palmyra.

4          Polygamous: The condition in which bisexual and unisexual (staminate/ pistillate) flowers occur in a same plant is called polygamous. It is of several types. See box. Example: Musa, Mangifera.

Types of Polygamous:

Andromonoecious: A plant with both male flowers and bisexual flowers.

Gynomonoecious: A plant with both pistillate and bisexual flowers.

Polygamomonoecious: A plant with pistillate, staminate and bisexual flowers. It is also called trimonoecious.

Androdioecious: A plant with staminate flowers on one individual and bisexual flower on other individual

Gynodioecious: A plant with pistillate flowers on one individual and bisexual flowers on other individual.

Polygamodioecious: A plant with staminate flowers and bisexual in one individual and pistillate flowers and bisexual flowers in other individual.

Trioecious: A plant with staminate,pistillate and bisexual flowers on different individuals