dioecious
/dʌɪˈiːʃəs
/adjective Biology
(Of a plant or invertebrate animal) having the male and female reproductive organs in separate individuals. Compare with monoecious.Lloyd and Webb suggested that if females of dioecious species allocated a greater proportion of their available energy to reproduction than males, then females should be slower growing and have lower survival rates....
- Consider a population of dioecious species, in which males mate randomly with females.
- We compared the phyllotaxy and characteristics of the vascular system for two of the dioecious species (subgenus Acnida).
Derivatives
dioecy
- In addition, the general term ‘population structure’ encompasses dioecy, ploidy level, age structure, reproductive patterns such as partial selfing, as well as the various forms of geographical structure and dispersal.
- S. latifolia has recently become a popular model to study dioecy and evolution of plant sex chromosomes.
- Sagittaria is one such taxon enabling studies of the evolution of dioecy from monoecy.
Origin
Mid 18th century: from modern Latin Dioecia (a class in Linnaeus's sexual system), from di-1 'two' + Greek -oikos 'house'.