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A cannabis plant that has both male and female reproductive organs.
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
Alternative forms
- diaecious, diœcious, dioicous
Etymology
From di- + -oecious.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /daɪ̯ˈiːʃəs/
Adjective
dioecious (not comparable)
- (botany) Having the male and female reproductive organs on separate plants (of the same species) rather than different parts of the same plant.
- (zoology, rare) Having two distinct sexes.
- Synonym: gonochoristic
Antonyms
- monoecious