Systematic review of plant sex terms?

  • #1
snorkack
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Where could you find a systematic review of terms specifying the possible sex structures of plant populations?
This
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_reproductive_morphology
has a list of 30 terms, arranged by alphabet not meaning, containing many synonyms...

It seems to me that a plant having in general several flowers and being as per premise sexually active can be in any of 7 sexes. And a plant population which successfully practices sexual reproduction can have 125 sex structures. So where could it be checked which of these have several names, which a single name and which no name? Which of the 125 are common, which rare but do occur, are there any that are completely absent?
The possible sexes of a plant individual having generally several flowers are:
1) Female - several or one female flowers and no male or middle sex flowers
2) Male - several or one male flowers and no female or middle sex flowers
and then 5 distinct middle sexes:
3) Female and male flowers but no middle sex flowers
4) Female, male and middle sex flowers
5) Female and middle sex flowers but no male flowers
6) Male and middle sex flowers but no female flowers
7) Several or one middle sex flowers but no female or male flowers.
The sex structures for a population that might have a middle sex and per premise successfully sexually reproducing have 5 options
1) No middle sex - only females and males
2) All three sexes
3) Females and middle sex individuals but no males
4) Males and middle sex individuals but no females
5) Only middle sex individuals, no females or males.

But when there are 5 distinct middle sexes, each of the 4 options including a middle sex consists of 31 variants depending on which middle sexes are present or absent. Which makes a grand total of 1+4*31=125, as stated above
So what could be good sources to check terminology of these structures?
 
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  • #2
This sounds to me like a something that could be difficult to find a single source covering all you describe.
Different terms used in different groups of plants for the same thing would not be surprising.
The terminology may be in a transition state now, making it more difficult.
Taxonomy has similar problems. The smaller your set of conditions, the more likely you will find a single satisfactory reference.

snorkack said:
So what could be good sources to check terminology of these structures?
An advanced botany text book, a monograph on the subject, maybe an annual review article on the subject.
 
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