Monoclinous is often defined as a synonym for perfect flower so is
probably not needed in teaching. Interestingly, Oxford English
Dictionary, 2nd edition quotes the early usage by Stark (1828) "Those
vegetables where the male and female organs occur on the same plant are
called monoclinous, and the other diclinous." The way that is phrased
sounds like monoclinous was referring to plants that were not
dioecious.
"Hermaphroditic plant" seems potentially confusing for students because
monoecious plants might be termed hermaphroditic because they have both
"male" and "female" organs on a single individual. Monoecious plants
are considered hermaphroditic by Encyclopedia Brittanica:
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9040156
Synoecious has been defined in more than one way as is not uncommon for
botanical terms.
1. Webster's Third International Dictionary (1993) defined synoecious
as "exhibiting monoecism."
2. Jackson's (1950) A Glossary of Botanic Terms. defined synoecious as
"Having antheridia and archegonia in one inflorescence" or "the
occurance of flowers of different sexes in the same inflorescence."
3. The American Heritage Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary (1987)
defined synoecious as "Having male and female organs in the same flower
or corresponding structure."
4. The MSN Encarta Dictionary defined synoecious as "With male and
female organs together: with male and female organs on the same flower
or other structure."
http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861717760/synoecious.html
Thus, synoecious could be used to refer a perfect-flowered plant.
Synoecious offers one obvious advantage because it has the same root as
in monoecious and dioecious. However, synoecious is not a familiar term
and has been defined in different ways. For angiosperms, maybe it would
be best to use the term "perfect-flowered species". That could be
contrasted with "imperfect-flowered species" that are either dioecious
or monoecious.
Wikipedia, always a work in progress, attempts to sort out terms on
Plant Sexuality:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_sexuality
David R. Hershey
