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

—Some fungi, though able to live as saprophytes, occasionally enter the body of living plants, and are thus termed facultative parasites.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 3 "Frost" to "Fyzabad" by Various