Wed 10 Jul, 2013 10:33 am
how do you identify plants by gender?
Most plants have both male and female parts. They are hermaphrodites.
Stamens may be called the "male" parts of a flower; collectively they form the androecium. Carpels may be called the "female" parts of a flower; collectively they form the gynoecium.
A "perfect" flower has both stamens and carpels, and may be described as "bisexual" or "hermaphroditic". A "unisexual" flower is one in which either the stamens or the carpels are missing, vestigial or otherwise non-functional. Each flower is either "staminate" (having only functional stamens) and thus "male", or "carpellate" (having only functional carpels) and thus "female". If separate staminate and carpellate flowers are always found on the same plant, the species is called "monoecious". If separate staminate and carpellate flowers are always found on different plants, the species is called "dioecious". In a 1922 study of 120,000 species of flowering plant, the great majority (about 72%) were reported to be bisexual. By contrast, about 10% of species had strictly unisexual flowers, with around 7% strictly unisexual and monoecious, and around 4% strictly unisexual and dioecious.[Note 1]
thanks that helps a lot I been studying plants for 2 years now hoping to be a botanist
Heres a paper on the evolution of dioecious plnts (dioecy) is the term used for plants having separate sexes on separate plants
Hi everyone ... !
I think identifying plants by gender is not so easy as we think . First we should do effort to get information about plants and their characteristics. Agriculture students are doing very good job in that case.