Monanthous

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Producing a single flower or flowering only once during its life cycle
2. Characterized by the development of just one flower, whether at a time or in total
3. Having or generating only one bloom, either at maturity or throughout the plant's existence

Etymology: "Monanthous" is a botanical term describing a plant that bears a single flower, or a plant whose flowers come one at a time. It is built from "mono-", from Greek "monos" meaning "single" or "alone", joined to "-anthous", from Greek "anthos" meaning "flower". The pairing is a straightforward compound of the kind botanists have long used to describe floral structure, so the word's meaning can be read directly from its two halves. The "-anthous" ending appears in a whole family of plant descriptions. Words such as "dianthous" (two flowers) and "polyanthous" (many flowers) follow the same pattern, letting a botanist specify flower count with a single adjective rather than a full sentence.

Synonyms: single-flowered

Antonyms: polyanthous