Homospory

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The production of a single type of spore by a plant species, which develops into a bisexual gametophyte capable of producing both male and female reproductive cells; a reproductive strategy in lower plants such as ferns and some algae; the condition of having uniform spores for sexual reproduction
2. A botanical condition where only one kind of spore is produced by a plant, leading to the development of gametophytes that bear both sexes; a characteristic found in certain non-seed plants including many pteridophytes; indicative of a reproductive process involving spores of a single form
3. A reproductive mode involving the generation of identical spores that germinate into gametophytes possessing both male and female organs, common in ferns and some algae species; describing plants that do not differentiate spores based on sex; a form of sexual reproduction through uniform spore types

Etymology: Homospory is a technical coinage, not an ancient word. It was built in the modern scientific era from Greek roots: "homos" meaning "same" or "alike," and "spora," meaning "seed" or "sowing," the root that also gives "spore." Together they describe a plant that produces only one kind of spore, in contrast to heterospory, where spores come in two sizes or types. The term belongs to the vocabulary of plant botany developed in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when researchers were working out how the life cycles of ferns, mosses, and their relatives differed from those of flowering plants. Its opposite, heterospory, was coined in the same period, and the pair became standard for classifying how plants organize their reproduction. Because the terms were invented by scientists to describe observed patterns, they carry no folk history or older sense that changed over time.

Synonyms: homosporous reproduction

Antonyms: heterospory