subsexualadj.
/ˌsʌbˈsɛkʃʊəl/, /ˌsʌbˈsɛkʃ(ᵿ)l/, /ˌsʌbˈsɛksjʊ(ə)l/, U.S. /ˌsəbˈsɛkʃ(əw)əl/ 1. Designating or relating to a type of dimorphism in plants which is associated neither with sexual distinction nor with adaptation to promote cross-fertilization. Also: (of a species of plant) showing such dimorphism. disused.
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1862 Amer. Jrnl. Sci. 83 241 Maximovicz..indicates a difference between the American and the Siberian plant in the length of the filaments and of the stipe. The latter is variable; the former is subsexual; both short and long filaments occur in Richardson's specimens.
1875 Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci. 1874–5 10 47 Filaments sometimes hairy, as described by Nuttall, very commonly glabrous, perhaps a subsexual difference.
1907 Proc. Washington Acad. Sci. 9 206 Subsexual dimorphism is a method of descent in which the members of the same species are of two or more different kinds, castes, or ‘elementary species’ but without regard to sexuality or to provision for cross-fertilization.
2. Genetics. Of or relating to any of several forms of apomixis in plants in which the progeny are genetically different from the parent despite the lack of fertilization; spec. designating or characterized by a form of parthenogenesis in which the embryo develops from a cell produced by a modified form of meiosis, involving chromosome pairing and recombination but no reduction in the number of chromosomes.
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the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > types of reproduction > [adjective] > others
gemmiparous1793
gemmiferous1804
agamic1816
zoogenic1842
agamogenetic1858
autogenetic1859
parthenogenetic1860
parthenogenous1869
unsexual1873
monogenous1874
monogonic1876
monogonous1876
arrenotokous1877
gemmative1877
thelytokous1877
parthenogenic1878
heteroblastic1888
blastogenic1889
isogamous1889
paedogenetic1889
monogenic1890
anisogamous1891
monogenetic1900
paedogamous1912
apomictic1913
cytogamous1918
ectogenetic1923
pseudogamous1932
agamospermous1933
impaternate1934
subsexual1937
mictic1950
somatogamous1950
zygogenetic1950
1937 C. D. Darlington in Nature 30 Oct. 761/2 Other mechanisms occur in the dog roses and with certain kinds of parthenogenesis whereby, as in Œnothera, a large part of the genes are prevented from recombining. With such systems stability has been achieved at the expense of variability, and we have arrived at what we may call a sub-sexual method of reproduction.
1949 C. D. Darlington & K. Mather Elements of Genetics xii. 266 As compared with sexual species variation is much reduced but it still occurs. The new apomictic species is thus often subsexual.
1973 Amer. Jrnl. Bot. 60 540/2 Certain apogamous life cycles have subsexual properties; that is, have the capacity to store and release genetic variability.
1997 Ann. Missouri Bot. Garden 84 131/2 Segregating offspring may arise through a subsexual process involving normal meiosis in the embryo sac, followed by fusion of two of the resultant haploid cells.
2000 D. Briggs & S. M. Walters Plant Variation & Evol. (ed. 3) vii. 141 'Sub-sexual' complexities of this kind may be more widespread.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1862