Bisexuality in Flowering Plants

General
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Ahh, I should have reviewed all the terms first I guess. Thanks

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Occurs to me this is relevant to perfect (I have not heard people refer to this as hermaphroditic but it fits) vs imperfect flowers.
As one interesting example, juniper species vary on whether they are primarily monoecious or dioecious.
J. grandis (Sierra juniper) is less then 10% monoecious (my observations find well under 5%) and J. osteosperma (Utah juniper) is primarily monoecios, I hava never found otherwise.

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Yes, the term perfect flower is also used by botanists to refer to a bisexual flower.

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I have a flatmate who’s taking a botany paper and when I asked her about flowers being bisexual she corrected me to hermaphroditic. I haven’t studied it too much so I don’t know the difference

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Bisexual is a new (to botany) term to botany. It mean the same thing as perfect, in flowers, but is replacing that term in some places.

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I see the term bisexual being used in botany textbooks in relation to plant gametophytes. Bisexual gametophytes of homosporous plants make both egg and sperm (monoicous - not the same as monoecious, which is used for sporophytes, just to add to the confusion), while the dioicous gametophytes of heterosporous plants are unisexual (either male or female). Sex assignments on gametophytes opens up a whole other can of worms…

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Just out of curiosity, I grabbed our botany text (Raven Biology of Plants; Evert, Eichhorn, 8th edition) and checked the glossary. The book uses both “bisexual flower” and “hermaphroditic flower” so I assume both phrases are acceptable and interchangeable. Here’s what the glossary has to offer (just focusing on what applies to flowering plants):

Terms describing flowers:

  • bisexual flower: A flower that has at least one functional stamen and one functional carpel.
  • unisexual: Usually describing a flower lacking either stamens or carpels; a perianth may be present or absent.
  • perfect flower: A flower having both stamens and carpels; hermaphroditic flower.
  • imperfect flower: A flower lacking either stamens or carpels.
  • carpellate: Pertaining to a flower with one or more carpels but no functional stamens. Also called pistillate.
  • staminate: Pertaining to a flower having stamens but no functional carpels.

Terms describing individuals/species:

  • dioecious: Unisexual; having male and female (or staminate and ovulate) elements on different individuals of the same species.
  • monoecious: Having anthers and carpels produced in separate flowers on the same individual.
  • hermaphrodite: An organism possessing both male and female reproductive organs.
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