Question

How many plants in the list given below are polycarpic?
Wheat, Rice, Maize, Bamboo, Mango, Litchi, Guava, Lemon, Oranges.
A. Six
B. Three
C. Four
D. Five

Answer 1

Hint: Polycarpic plants are the ones that produce fruits many times. They are also perennial in nature which means that they last for long durations of time. Their gynoecium has two or more distinct ovaries. On the other hand, monocarpic plants flower only one time in their life. Not all monocarpic plants are perennial, most of them are biennial.

Complete answer:
- There are some peculiar characteristics of polycarpic plants. These types of plants are able to produce flowers many times in the seasons or years. Their reproduction also happens many times and therefore they can be best suited for those plants that do not reproduce on a continuous basis.
- These types of plants pay more attention to their reproductive processes and so they do not focus much on their growth. Hence, due to their reduced development, they have less energy for reproduction compared to the monocarpic plants.
- Among the plants given above, only some display polycarpic nature. They are Mango, Litchi, Guava, Lemon and Oranges.
- The others like Wheat, Rice, Maize and Bamboo are known to be monocarpic.
- Therefore out of the given nine plants, five of them are polycarpic

Hence, the correct answer is option (D).

Note: There can be some examples of both the cases (monocarpic and polycarpic nature). For instance, the red wood trees which have the ability to survive for many thousand years along with several thousand reproductive cycles. Whereas, the Arabidopsis thaliana is able to complete its whole life cycle in two months or even less than that. And once many offspring are produced, it undergoes the senescence process and dies.