facultative

Example Sentences

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"Fascinatingly, we found that the obligately agamospermous Balanophora species were all island species -- and we speculate that more Balanophora species may be facultative, or even obligate, agamosperms."

From Science Daily • Dec. 20, 2025

For the first time, scientists have induced facultative parthenogenesis, a form of asexual reproduction, in an animal that usually reproduces sexually.

From Salon • Jul. 28, 2023

Some species, termed facultative parthenogens, alternate between sexual and asexual reproduction.

From Scientific American • Jun. 9, 2023

Note that there is no clear line that differentiates facultative carnivores from omnivores; dogs would be considered facultative carnivores.

From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022

In Germany, Dr. Mensinga, the gynæcologist, is the most prominent advocate, on medical and hygienic grounds, of what he terms "facultative sterility," which he first put forward about 1889.

From Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6 Sex in Relation to Society by Ellis, Havelock