semelparous
Jul. 22nd, 2016 07:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordsemelparous (se-muhl-PAR-uhs, SEM-uhl-par-uhs, se-MEL-puh-ruhs) - adj., reproducing once in a lifetime.
As in plants that bloom and seed once (pretty much ever annual flower), or pacific salmon. For plants, a synonym is monocarpic. Contrast with iteroparous, reproducing several times. Both words were coined in 1954 by evolutionary biologist Lamont Cole from Latin roots: semel means once/single time, and iterō, I repeat, from iterāre, to repeat (compare iterate) + -parous, to bear (young).
---L.
As in plants that bloom and seed once (pretty much ever annual flower), or pacific salmon. For plants, a synonym is monocarpic. Contrast with iteroparous, reproducing several times. Both words were coined in 1954 by evolutionary biologist Lamont Cole from Latin roots: semel means once/single time, and iterō, I repeat, from iterāre, to repeat (compare iterate) + -parous, to bear (young).
---L.
