proterandrous, a.
(prɒtəˈrændrəs)
[f. protero- + -androus: cf. protandrous. In both senses opp. to proterogynous.]
1. Bot. Having the stamens or male organs mature before the pistil or female organ.
| 1875 Lubbock Wild Flowers v. 130 Cross-fertilisation is..favoured by the flower being proterandrous. 1879 A. W. Bennett in Academy 33 Pentstemon is proterandrous (therefore cross-fertilized). |
2. Zool. Of a hermaphrodite animal, or a colony of zooids: Having the male organs, or individuals, sexually mature before the female. (Cf. quot. 1887 s.v. proterandry below.)
Hence proteˈrandrousness, the quality or fact of being proterandrous; so proteˈrandry.
| 1875 Lubbock Wild Flowers v. 132 Cross-fertilisation is secured..in Echium and Borago by proterandrousness (if I may be permitted to coin the word). 1887 Nature 29 Dec. 213/1 If the polypides are unisexual, then the proterandry refers only to the colony as a whole. 1895 Syd. Soc. Lex., Proterandry, the condition, in a Phanerogam, in which the stamens of the flower mature before the pistil. |