Home UK English monoecious

Meaning of monoecious in English:

monoecious

Pronunciation /məˈniːʃəs/

adjective

Biology

  • (of a plant or invertebrate animal) having both the male and female reproductive organs in the same individual; hermaphrodite.

    Compare with dioecious

    ‘This monoecious species has male flowers occurring in catkins and female flowers occurring in clusters.’
    • ‘Now monoecious trees occur in the endangered species list more than you would expect by chance.’
    • ‘A single quantitative trait was described by the genetic model for a population of diploid, monoecious individuals, with an initial population mean of 100.’
    • ‘Eriocaulon decangulare L. (common names include ten-angled pipewort, hat pin, and bog button) is a monoecious perennial that occurs in wetlands throughout the coastal plain of North Carolina.’
    • ‘The European beech is a monoecious diploid late-successional forest tree; forests dominated by this species cover 17 million ha in Europe.’

Origin

Mid 18th century from modern Latin Monoecia (denoting a class of such plants in Linnaeus's system), from Greek monos ‘single’ + oikos ‘house’.