Pertain to plants producing male flowers only or staminate, produce pollen but no seeds, the male plants of a Dioecious species. Dioecious plants have unisexual reproductive units with male and female plants. Examples of dioecious plant species include ginkgos, willows, cannabis, and African teak.
Plant reproductive morphology is the study of the physical form and structure (the morphology) of those parts of plants directly or indirectly concerned with sexual reproduction.
Among all living organisms, flowers, which are the reproductive structures of angiosperms, are the most varied physically and show a correspondingly great diversity in methods of reproduction. Plants that are not flowering plants (green algae, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, ferns and gymnosperms such as conifers) also have complex interplays between morphological adaptation and environmental factors in their sexual reproduction.
The breeding system, or how the sperm from one plant fertilizes the ovum of another, depends on the reproductive morphology, and is the single most important determinant of the genetic structure of nonclonal plant populations.
Christian Konrad Sprengel (1793) studied the reproduction of flowering plants and for the first time it was understood that the pollination process involved both biotic and abiotic interactions. Charles Darwin's theories of natural selection utilized this work to build his theory of evolution, which includes analysis of the coevolution of flowers and their insect pollinators.
English
Etymology
From andro- + -ecious, from Ancient Greek ἀνήρ (anḗr, “male”) in combination with οἰκία (oikía, “residency”).
Adjective
androecious (not comparable)
- (biology, botany, zoology) Having masculine reproductive organs.
