{{short description|Botanical life strategy}} {{refimprove|date=February 2010}}
'''Monocarpy''' refers to a reproductive strategy in plants in which the plant will flower and set seeds only once in its lifetime, and then die. The term is derived from Greek (''{{Transliteration|el|mono}}'', "single" + {{Transliteration|el|karpos}}, "fruit" or "grain"), and was first used by Alphonse de Candolle. Other terms with the same meaning are ''hapaxanth'' and ''semelparous''. The antonym is polycarpic, a plant that flowers and sets seeds many times during its lifetime; the antonym of semelparous is ''iteroparous''. Plants which flower en masse (gregariously) before dying are known as plietesials. The term ''hapaxanth'' is most often in conjunction with describing some of the taxa of Arecaceae (palms) and some species of bamboo, but rarely used otherwise; its antonym is ''pleonanth''. This was first used by Alexander Braun.
Monocarpic plants are not necessarily annuals, because some monocarpic plants can live a number of years before they will flower. In some monocarpic plants, flowering signals senescence, while in others the production of fruit and seeds causes changes within the plants which lead to death. These changes are induced by chemicals that act as hormones, redirecting the resources of the plants from the roots and leaves to the production of fruits and or seeds.<ref name="LeshemHalevy2012">{{cite book|author1=Y.Y. Leshem|author2=A.H. Halevy|author3=C. Frenkel|title=Processes and Control of Plant Senescence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=obqGAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA120|date=2 December 2012|publisher=Elsevier Science|isbn=978-0-444-59846-2|pages=120–}}</ref>
Monocot plant families that include monocarpic species include Agavaceae such as the century plant and other ''Agave'' and some yuccas, Araceae, Arecaceae, Bromeliaceae some in the genus ''Puya'' and ''Tillandsia utriculata'', Musaceae such as the banana trees (''Musa''), and Poaceae such as bamboos, which can take 8 to 20 years or in the case some ''Phyllostachys'' species even take over 100 years to bloom and then die.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Carl |last1=Veller |first2=Martin A. |last2=Nowak |authorlink2=Martin Nowak |first3=Charles C. |last3=Davis |title=Letter: Extended flowering intervals of bamboos evolved by discrete multiplication |date=July 2015 |volume=18 |issue=7 |journal=Ecology Letters |pages=653–659 |doi=10.1111/ele.12442 |pmid=25963600 |issn=1461-023X |accessdate=April 1, 2016 |url-status=dead |url=http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~ccdavis/pdfs/Veller_et_al_Ecology_Letters_2015.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150911202926/http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~ccdavis/pdfs/Veller_et_al_Ecology_Letters_2015.pdf |archive-date=2015-09-11}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title= Bamboo Mathematicians |author= Carl Zimmer |authorlink= Carl Zimmer |date= May 15, 2015 |publisher= National Geographic |url= http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2015/05/15/bamboo-mathematicians/ |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150517210059/http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2015/05/15/bamboo-mathematicians/ |url-status= dead |archive-date= May 17, 2015 |accessdate= April 1, 2016}}</ref> Dicot plant families that include monocarpic species include Acanthaceae, Apocynaceae, Asteraceae, and Fabaceae. Hawaiian silverswords and their relatives in the genus ''Wilkesia'', which are Asteraceans, may take 10–50 years before flowering. Few dicot shrubs with multiple branching and secondary growth species have been described. Those that have include ''Strobilanthes'' species, ''Cerberiopsis candelabrum'', ''Tachigali versicolor'' and other ''Tachigali'' species.<ref name=kita>{{cite journal|doi=10.2307/1941379|last=Kitajima|first=Kaoru |author2=Carol K. Augspurger|date=August 1989|title=Seed and Seedling Ecology of a Monocarpic Tropical Tree, Tachigalia Versicolor|journal=Ecology|location=jstor|volume=70|issue=4|pages=1102–1114|jstor=1941379|bibcode=1989Ecol...70.1102K }}</ref>
Some monocarpic plants can be kept alive if the flowers are removed as soon as they have finished blooming before seed formation begins, or if the flower buds are removed before they begin blooming.<ref name="MohrSchopfer2012">{{cite book|author1=Hans Mohr|author2=Peter Schopfer|title=Plant Physiology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wmj7CAAAQBAJ&pg=PA437|date=6 December 2012|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-3-642-97570-7|pages=437–}}</ref>
==See also== * Polycarpic * Mast (botany) * ''Strobilanthes callosa'' * ''Strobilanthes kunthiana''
==References== {{reflist}}
Category:Plant life-forms Category:Plant reproduction Category:Fertility