Autogamies

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The process of self-fertilization in plants and some organisms, where gametes originate from the same individual and combine to form a zygote
2. A reproductive strategy characterized by the union of gametes that come from the same parent, resulting in offspring genetically similar to that parent
3. A biological phenomenon in which an organism produces gametes that fertilize themselves, enabling reproduction without the need for a partner or external gametes

Etymology: "Autogamies" is the plural of "autogamy," the botanical term for self-fertilization, in which a flower's pollen fertilizes its own ovules. The word is built from two Greek elements: "auto-," meaning "self," and "-gamy," from Greek "gamos," meaning "marriage" or "union." Its own history is therefore the story of an ancient word for wedding, rebuilt for a new purpose: "gamos" gave English a whole family of terms for kinds of union, and botanists adapted the same pattern to describe a plant joining with itself. The plural form simply reflects that more than one instance of self-fertilization is being discussed, as when a botanist compares several species or several flowering events. Its plural endings follow the regular English pattern for words ending in "-y" after a consonant, which change to "-ies."

Synonyms: self-fertilization, self-pollination

Antonyms: allogamy, cross-pollination