I used to think that monoecious plants have male (unisexual) flowers and female (unisexual) flowers on the same plant but on different locations. But recently I learnt that monoecious plants also have bisexual flowers, which means the male part and the female part in the same flower.
Thus, I am confused. Can someone clarify?
You are correct that monoecious describes plants where the male and female structures (cones or flowers) are on the same plant but in separate locations. Plants that produce hermaphrodite flowers together with either female or male flowers, are termed gynomonoecious or andromonoecious, respectively. A plant with separate male, female, and hermaphrodite flowers is trimonoecious.
Monoecy is not to be confused with monoicy. In monoicy, both gametes, sperm and egg, are produced by the gametophyte (e.g., some plants with gametophyte-dominant life cycles [bryophytes]).
Monoecious plants have both female and male flowers in the same plant. They can be male flowers, female flowers or a mixture of the two in the same plant.
