apospory Bot.
(əˈpɒspərɪ)
[f. apo- + Gr. σπόρος seed + -y3.]
Absence or suppression of spores where they are normally produced, as in certain ferns, mosses, and other cryptogams in which the sexual organism (prothallus in ferns, etc., or perfect plant in mosses) is developed directly from the sporangium or from the leaf instead of from a spore. So aˈposporous a., characterized by or of the nature of apospory; hence aˈposporously adv. (Cf. apogamy.)
| 1878 Vines in Jrnl. Bot. VII. 361 To indicate..that no spores are..produced..by the sporophore of Chara, we may speak of this plant as being ‘aposporous’. 1884 Jrnl. Linn. Soc., Bot. XXI. 360 (title) On Apospory in Ferns. 1886 [see apogamy]. 1886 Encycl. Brit. XX. 431/2 In the aposporous Ferns and Mosses and in the Characeæ the oophore is developed as a bud from the sporophore. 1892 Athenæum 12 Nov. 667/3 Prothalli developed aposporously. |