Here’s a monocarpic rainforest legume tree. This is Tachigali versicolor, which has a spectacular buttressed trunk. After reproducing (& producing wind-dispersed fruits), the whole tree dies. Both photos by Reinaldo Aguilar CCBYNCSA2 #Fabaceae #monocarpy #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Wait, hold on... a monocarpic TREE?!?!??! That feels insane! Omg I had no idea monocarpy was present in ANY tree.

Monocarpy is super rare among broadleaf trees (& absent from Gymnosperms). Cerberiopsis candelabra comes from New Caledonia. It’s a monocarpic forest tree! 📷: Florence Le Strat CCBYNC4 #Apocynaceae #monocarpy #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Caryota is a close cousin of Arenga, which also has this kind of monocarpy.

Caryota urens does a slow version of monocarpy. Flowering begins at the stem apex (preventing further veg growth) & proceeds down the stem. It can take months. It can have fruits at the top of the trunk & flowers near the ground. 📷: Forest & Kim Starr CCBY2 #Arecaceae #monocarpy #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Monocarpy evolved several times in the palm family. Here it is in Metroxylon vitiense. Surprisingly, M. sagu (sago palm) produces offsets before dying like some agaves (not monocarpic); M. amicarum flowers year after year w/o dying (pleonanthy = iteroparity). #Arecaceae #monocarpy #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

If it’s massive monocarpy you’re looking for, you’ll find it in Corypha. This is C. umbraculifera. It produces the largest inflorescence in the Plant Kingdom (ca. 8 m tall) and the most flowers (ca. 24 million/inflorescence). Big bang doesn’t get any bigger. #Arecaceae #monocarpy #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

You could not ask for a more spectacular example of a monocarpic bromeliad than the magnificent Puya raimondii of Peru & Bolivia. Note the dead individual standing in the front. 📷: Dabalché CCBYNCSA2. #Bromeliaceae #monocarpy #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Many bromeliads do what agaves do: The rosette flowers & dies, but offsets survive. Some, however, don’t make offsets & are monocarpic. Most Tillandsia spp proliferate via offsets, but T. utriculata does not. It is monocarpic & reproduces only by seeds. #Bromeliaceae #monocarpy #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Agaves are known for their big bang reproduction: They grow for several years, flower spectacularly & die. Most botanists say that agaves that make vegetative offsets are not truly monocarpic. One rosette dies, but the plant survives. 📷: Agave attenuata. #Asparagaceae #monocarpy #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

I haven't! What's monocarpy?

Who hasn’t heard of monocarpy among bamboos? Responding to unknown environmental cues, all the stems in the stand flower. In Duke Gardens in late 2023, Phyllostachys nigra ‘Bori’ flowered & slowly (over many months) died. #Poaceae #monocarpy #Botany 🌾🧪🌱
🧵2/3

Annuals & biennials reproduce & then die, but that same reproductive strategy is sometimes found in long-lived perennials. Reproduction can be all at once (big bang) or last several years ending in death. Either way, we call it monocarpy (= semelparity in animals). #monocarpy #Botany 🌾🧪🌱
🧵1/3