polyembryo

Noun

polyembryo (plural polyembryos)

1. A single seed that contains multiple embryos.
   • But sour and swee oranges have a number of characters in common -- small-panicled inflorescences, tight peel, whitish polyembryo, etc.1932, Taihoku Teikoku Daigaku. Ri-nogakubu, Memoirs, page 68
   • A complicating feature of conifers, when estimating the number of lethals, is that polyembryos are common during seed development.1977, M. Thompson Conkle, Knobcone Pine Self Compatibility and Isozyme Inheritance, page 61
2. One of a set of genetically identical embryos that develop from a single fertilized egg.
   • Mitochondria, like the phospholipids, have been investigated when the polyembryo of Ageniaspis had the form of a tube (string).1964, Kazimierz Sembrat, Zoologica Poloniae: Archivum Societatis Zoologorum Poloniae, page 264
   • The phenomenon, nevertheless, is probably greatly underreported, because to my knowledge no one has searched methodically—using suitable nuclear genetic markers—for vertebrate polyembryos in nature.2008, John Avise, Clonality, →ISBN