Difference Between Monocarpic and Polycarpic Plants

The key difference between monocarpic and polycarpic plants is that the monocarpic plants produce flowers and seeds once in a lifetime, while the polycarpic plants produce flowers and seeds every year.

Monocarpic and polycarpic plants are two different types of flowering plants. As their name suggests, monocarpic plants produce flowers and seeds only once in their lifetime. After producing flowers, they die. On the other hand, polycarpic plants produce flowers and seeds many times. Every year, they produce flowers and fruits. Thus, they are long-lived plants. Monocarpic plants are mainly annual plants that are short-lived.

CONTENTS

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What are Polycarpic Plants
3. What are Monocarpic Plants
4. Similarities Between Monocarpic and Polycarpic Plants
5. Side by Side Comparison – Monocarpic vs Polycarpic Plants in Tabular Form
6. Summary

What are Monocarpic Plants?

Monocarpic plants are the flowering plants that produce flowers and seeds once in their life span. After producing seeds and fruits, these plants die due to the changes occurring inside the plants. Therefore, most monocarpic plants are annual plants. However, these plants may live several years before flowering.

Rice, carrots, radishes, lettuce, agaves, fishtail palms, aeoniums, annual flowers, bananas, zinnias, sunflowers, tillandsias, bromeliads, bamboo and wheat, are several examples for monocarpic plants.

What are Polycarpic Plants?

Polycarpic plants are the flowering plants that produce flowers and fruits many times. In simple words, they are plants that produce flowers and seeds every year. These plants do not die after flowering or setting fruits once. Most polycarpic plants are perennials. In fact, polycarpic plants are the most diverse group of flowering plants and include herbs, shrubs and trees.

Regardless of the life span, polycarpic plants produce flowers, seeds and fruits. However, when the lifespan increases, the relative importance of reproduction in polycarpic plants also decreases. But, the relative importance of survival increases with ageing. Apple, mango, grape wine, orange, etc. are several polycarpic plants.

What are the Similarities Between Monocarpic and Polycarpic Plants?

• Monocarpic and polycarpic plants are flowering plants.
• Both these types of plants produce flowers for sexual reproduction.
• They also produce seeds and fruits.

What is the Difference Between Monocarpic and Polycarpic Plants?

Monocarpic plants reproduce via flowers only once in a lifetime. In contrast, polycarpic plants reproduce multiple times via flowers during their lifetime. So, this is the key difference between monocarpic and polycarpic plants. That is; the monocarpic plants reproduce only once, whereas the polycarpic plants reproduce multiple times. After the production of flowers, monocarpic plants die, but polycarpic plants do not die after flowering. Furthermore, most monocarpic plants are annuals, while most polycarpic plants are perennials. Rice, wheat, radish, carrot, sunflowers, and bamboo are some examples of monocarpic plants, while apple, mango, grape wine, and orange are some examples of polycarpic plants.

The following infographic summarizes the difference between monocarpic and polycarpic plants.

Summary – Monocarpic vs Polycarpic Plants

Both monocarpic and polycarpic plants are two groups of flowering plants. However, the monocarpic plants flower only once, while the polycarpic plants flower many times during their lifetime. Furthermore, the monocarpic plants produce seeds and fruits once, and then afterwards, they die. In contrast, the polycarpic plants produce seeds and fruits every year, but they don’t die after flowering once. Moreover, most monocarpic plants are annuals, while most polycarpic plants are perennials. Thus, this summarizes the difference between monocarpic and polycarpic plants.

Reference:

1.“Polycarpic.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 23 July 2019, Available here.
2. Siskin, Joshua, and George Caponas. “Monocarpic Plants.” The Smarter Gardener, 11 May 2018, Available here.

Image Courtesy:

1. “Rice-flower,katori-city, japan” By I, Katorisi (CC BY 2.5) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Mango tree (22708493)” By Avinashsatamraju – Own work (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Commons Wikimedia