Meanings
- uncountablebiologyThe fact of a parasite or dependent organism completing an entire life cycle on a single host species.
Other measures[…]are deficient because of the large geographic distribution of the pathogens, their wide host ranges, their high spore dispersal capabilities, and the autoecism of some rusts.
2005, Salvatore Moricca, Alessandro Ragazzi, Gemma Assante, “Biocontrol of Rust Fungi by Cladosporium tenuissimum”, in Ming Hao Pei, Alistair R. McCracken, editors, Rust Diseases of Willow and Poplar, page 2151 more example
1972, B. K. Bakshi, Relative Blister Rust Resistance of Native and Introduced White Pines in Asia, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, International Union of Forestry Research Organizations, US Forest Service, University of Idaho, Biology of Rust Resistance in Forest Trees: Proceedings of a NATO-IUFRO Advanced Study Institute, page 254, This may possibly be explained by autoecism (pine-to-pine spread) in the aecial stage of the rust, but autoecism has not been conclusively proved (Spaulding, 1922).
- uncountablebiologyThe fact of having male and female reproductive organs on the same individual plant.
Along with this view of pleomorphism, goes the generally conceived idea that autoecism is the primitive condition, heteroecism being considered a later adaptation (Klebahn, 1904).
1911, Bulletin of the New York Botanical Garden, page 406
Origin
Derived from autoecious.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
autoecism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/autoecism
“autoecism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/autoecism. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “autoecism,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/autoecism.
Source: autoecism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.