Apomixes

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A form of asexual reproduction where seeds develop without fertilization, resulting in offspring genetically identical to the parent
2. A reproductive strategy in certain plants enabling reproduction from the maternal tissue of ovules, bypassing fertilization
3. A method of propagation in which plants produce seeds through processes other than the union of sperm and egg, leading to clones of the original organism

Etymology: Apomixis was named by the German botanist Hans Winkler, who needed a label for seeds that formed without the joining of egg and pollen. He built it from two Greek parts: "apo," meaning "away from," and "mixis," a mingling, from the verb "mignynai," to mix. The result literally means "away from mixing," a precise description of reproduction that skips the fusion of male and female cells altogether. The coinage was made to pair with an earlier term. August Weismann had already used "amphimixis," from "amphi," meaning "both," for ordinary sexual fusion of two parental nuclei. Amphimixis is mixing from both parents, while Winkler's word describes mixing from neither, so the two terms were deliberately set as opposites rather than inherited from ancient botany.