identifying plants by gender

Stamens may be called the "male" parts of a flower; collectively they form the androecium. Carpels may be called the "female" parts of a flower; collectively they form the gynoecium.

A "perfect" flower has both stamens and carpels, and may be described as "bisexual" or "hermaphroditic". A "unisexual" flower is one in which either the stamens or the carpels are missing, vestigial or otherwise non-functional. Each flower is either "staminate" (having only functional stamens) and thus "male", or "carpellate" (having only functional carpels) and thus "female". If separate staminate and carpellate flowers are always found on the same plant, the species is called "monoecious". If separate staminate and carpellate flowers are always found on different plants, the species is called "dioecious".[6] In a 1922 study of 120,000 species of flowering plant, the great majority (about 72%) were reported to be bisexual. By contrast, about 10% of species had strictly unisexual flowers, with around 7% strictly unisexual and monoecious, and around 4% strictly unisexual and dioecious.[7][Note 1]