thumb|upright=1.3|Close-up of a [[Schlumbergera flower, showing part of the gynoecium (specifically the stigma and part of the style) and the stamens that surround it]]

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 flowering plants (angiosperms), are the most varied physically and show a correspondingly great diversity in methods of reproduction. If both staminate and carpellate unisexual flowers are always found on the same plant, the species is described as monoecious. If each plant has either only staminate or carpellate flowers, the species is described as dioecious. A 1995 study found that about 6% of angiosperm species are dioecious, and that 7% of genera contain some dioecious species.

  • Andromonoecious: having both bisexual and male flowers on the same plant.
  • Gynoecious: having only female flowers (the female of a dioecious population); producing seed but not pollen.
  • Gynomonoecious: having both bisexual and female flowers on the same plant. (From the Greek monos "single" + oikia "house". See also the Wiktionary entry for .)
  • Perfect: (of flowers) see bisexual.
  • Subdioecious: having some individuals in otherwise dioecious populations with flowers that are not clearly male or female. The population produces normally male or female plants with unisexual flowers, but some plants may have bisexual flowers, some both male and female flowers, and others some combination thereof, such as female and bisexual flowers. The condition is thought to represent a transition between bisexuality and dioecy. Resource-allocation constraints may be important in the evolution of dioecy, for example, with wind-pollination, separate male flowers arranged in a catkin that vibrates in the wind may provide better pollen dispersal.

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Sources

Further reading

  • Images of sexual systems in flowering plants at bioimages.vanderbilt.edu