Definition of heterosporous in US English:
heterosporous
adjective-ərəˈspôrəsˌhetəˈräspərəs
Biology Producing two different kinds of spores.
Example sentencesExamples
- Some of the large sphenophyte trees of the Paleozoic were heterosporous, producing large megaspores and small microspores, and probably retaining the megaspore in the strobilus.
- Many paleobotanists believe that the earliest seed plants evolved from heterosporous Middle Devonian plants like the progymnosperms.
- Isoetes helps discriminate between these explanations as it lacks vessels and has a large genome despite being heterosporous, suggesting that vascular evolution is the key factor.
- Therefore, improved sampling and a better understanding of the morphology of fossils with affinities to these families are necessary to understand the origin and evolution of the heterosporous fern clade.
- Both of these genera are heterosporous, meaning that each species produces two distinctly different types of spores: microspores and megaspores.
Derivatives
noun
According to this argument, heterospory was the intermediate between homosporous free-sporing reproduction and the retained endosporic gametophyte of the seed habit.
Example sentencesExamples
- The Order Isoetales and Lepidodendrales are sometimes included in the Subclass Ligulatae - defined by the presence of ligules, heterospory, and endospory.
- Since the ‘seed habit’ begins with the reduction to a single functional megaspore in each megasporangium, heterospory seems like a logical intermediate step.
- W.A. DiMichele has argued that free-sporing heterospory will only be favored in swamp environments, where gametes can move easily between unisexual gametophytes.