A condition where separate sexes occur on separate individual cannabis plants – each plant displays a single gender.
Dioecy (/daɪˈiːsi/ dy-EE-see; from Ancient Greek διοικία dioikía 'two households'; adj. dioecious, /daɪˈiːʃ(i)əs/ dy-EE-sh(ee-)əs) is a characteristic of certain species that have distinct unisexual individuals, each producing either male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). 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.
English
Etymology
From Ancient Greek δι- (di-, “twice”) + οἰκία (oikía, “house, family, tribe”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /daɪˈiːsi/
Noun
dioecy (uncountable)
- (botany) The condition of being dioecious, namely having separate sexes, especially of plants.