Apomixis

In botany, apomixis is asexual development of seed or embryo without fertilization. However, other definitions include replacement of the seed by a plantlet or replacement of the flower by bulbils.

Apomictically produced offspring are genetically identical to the parent plant, except in nonrecurrent apomixis. Its etymology is Greek for "away from" + "mixing".

Normal asexual reproduction of plants, such as propagation from cuttings or leaves, has never been considered to be apomixis. In contrast to parthenocarpy, which involves seedless fruit formation without fertilization, apomictic fruits have viable seeds containing a proper embryo, with asexual origin.

In flowering plants, the term "apomixis" is used in a restricted sense to mean agamospermy, i.e. clonal reproduction through seeds. Although agamospermy could theoretically occur in gymnosperms, it appears to be absent in that group.

Apogamy is a related term that has had various meanings over time. In plants with independent gametophytes (notably ferns), the term is still used interchangeably with "apomixis", and both refer to the formation of sporophytes by parthenogenesis of gametophyte cells.

Male apomixis (paternal apomixis) involves replacement of the genetic material of an egg by the genetic material of the pollen.

Some authors included all forms of asexual reproduction within apomixis, but that generalization of the term has since died out.

Because apomictic plants are genetically identical from one generation to the next, each lineage has some of the characters of a true species, maintaining distinctions from other apomictic lineages within the same genus, while having much smaller differences than is normal between species of most genera. They are therefore often called microspecies. In some genera, it is possible to identify and name hundreds or even thousands of microspecies, which may be grouped together as species aggregates, typically listed in floras with the convention "Genus species agg." (such as the bramble, Rubus fruticosus agg.). In some plant families, genera with apomixis are quite common, for example in Asteraceae, Poaceae, and Rosaceae. Examples of apomixis can be found in the genera Crataegus (hawthorns), Amelanchier (shadbush), Sorbus (rowans and whitebeams), Rubus (brambles or blackberries), Poa (meadow grasses), Nardus stricta (matgrass), Hieracium (hawkweeds) and Taraxacum (dandelions). Apomixis is reported to occur in about 10% of globally extant ferns. Among polystichoid ferns, apomixis evolved several times independently in three different clades.