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monoecious, dioecious and other terminology. Birna?


Andrea B.

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If a genus has female flowers and male flowers on separate plants,

then that genus is termed dioecious.

 

If a genus has separate female flowers and male flowers on the same plant,

then that genus is called monoecious.

 

Did I get that correct?

 

Now, is there a term for a genus having flowers with both male and female parts within the same flower?

 

Thank you......

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Birna, the Resident Botanist, says: The term you are requesting is synoecious. As this is the default state of development in flowers, the term is less frequently used. "It's just a flower".

 

While I have the attention, just a reminder that species belonging to the Daisy Family Asteraceae all have composite flower [heads]. I frequently see abuse of terminology within this group. A "Daisy" has a floral structure made up of many small individual flowers that themselves can be similar or further specialised. There are no petals or sepals in this family either, their flowers have ligules (strapshaped asymmetric flowers) or disc flowers with a perianth (fused petal-like structures), all interspersed with bracteoles (sepal analogies). The flower heads are surrounded and supported by phyllaries. More in-depth description and the associated terminology are found in textbooks and online resources. I need to have a look there once in a while to brush up my own insights ....

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Andy Perrin
I see, I think — so you're saying it's incorrect to call a daisy "a flower" because it's really a lot of flowers (plural). And similarly for other Asteracea.
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The vernacular practice is calling a Daisy a "flower". However, my ears cringe every time. You might chose not to regard that response, of course. Just saying composite flower, or flower head, helps immensely :grin:
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Andy Perrin

The vernacular practice is calling a Daisy a "flower". However, my ears cringe every time. You might chose not to regard that response, of course. Just saying composite flower, or flower head, helps immensely :grin:

See also: entomologists, when hearing insects referred to as "bugs."

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Thanks, Birna, for the term synoecious.

 

I've been out looking for hedgehogs under junipers. That would be Echinocereus under Juniperus. Then I got a Google map for my house area and marked it up with the locations so I will know where to go look when bloomtime arrives. Theeennnnnn, I got to wondering whether hedgehogs grew more under male or under female junipers or evenly under both? So back out I go and mark the junipers up with m and f. There are 6 acres and probably 150 100 junipers? I haven't searched them all.*

 

This mapping activity is interesting only to those of us flower lovers bitten by the botany bug. (That sentence contains only colloquial terms: flower, bug.) In its support I will note that this mapping activity beats staring at the Johns Hopkins real-time map of coronavirus spread across the world.

 

 

*yet

 

Next winter when we are stuck indoors again in the northern hemisphere, we can edit the Asteraceae entries in the botanical section for proper terminology. Elsewhere in the forum, generic terms are ok because it would be too time consuming to edit non-botanical posts.

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Of course our members shouldn't be intimidated by the detailed terminology botanists have developed over the centuries since Linnaeus. Admittedly I stumble ever so often myself. However, when writing up factual articles, using the appropriate terms - and, correctly - always is advantageous. I try my best to live up to that.
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Bill De Jager

See also: entomologists, when hearing insects referred to as "bugs."

 

So a ladybug on a daisy isn't really a bug on a flower, technically speaking. :tongue:

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I will note that this mapping activity beats staring at the Johns Hopkins real-time map of coronavirus spread across the world.

 

Andrea B mentioned 'Coronavirus'.....

I had a 38mm piece of Fused Silica, from Omega, delivered by Australia Post today.....it was opened by ' Bio-Security ' before it was delivered to me....!

Heavens knows when the stuff that has left from China is going to arrive....?

Cheers

Col

 

PS. This message has been checked with an anti virus App before leaving my computer... :unsure:

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Andrea B mentioned 'Coronavirus'.....

I had a 38mm piece of Fused Silica, from Omega, delivered by Australia Post today.....it was opened by ' Bio-Security ' before it was delivered to me....!

Heavens knows when the stuff that has left from China is going to arrive....?

Cheers

Col

 

PS. This message has been checked with an anti virus App before leaving my computer... :unsure:

 

Excellent. I too had a 63mm f1.6 38mm piece of hopefully fused silica arrive today too.

 

This flower anatomy is interesting. Like learning a new language. I may just yet pick up botany.

 

Funny the only 2 Science courses I didn't take in University were Botany and Optics. Had I taken optics I would have had a Physics degree on top of my Biochemistry, Biotechnology degree. I dropped Botany for Virology.

Now I spent most of my time catching up on these two courses I guess. I have all the Neuro, chemistry and others covered.

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This flower anatomy is interesting. Like learning a new language. I may just yet pick up botany.

 

It *is* interesting once you get into it. Lots of Latin and Green roots, no pun intended, la!

 

I do have to keep a botanical glossary handy though. This (relatively) inexpensive book is one of the best for definitions of descriptive botanical vocabulary together with a multitude of illustrations: https://www.amazon.c...y/dp/0964022168

 

 

Botany and Microbiology were two of my favorite undergrad courses. :smile:

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