Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by smoody 5117 days ago
+1 for the use of monocarpic -- a concept i've always loved -- especially i the context of bamboo that have very long lifespans that end suddenly.
1 comments

I only read it to find out what "monocarpic" means. It failed to explain so I had to go look it up. To save everyone else the trouble of reading this rather content-free excessively-large-fonted self-referential not-quite-blog-post:

Monocarpic plants are those that flower, set seeds and then die. Other terms with the same meaning are hapaxanth and semelparous.

The antonym is "polycarpic", but as far as I can figure out the whole concept is unrelated to Polycarp:

Polycarp (69 – 155) (Ancient Greek: Πολύκαρπος) was a 2nd century Christian bishop of Smyrna.[1] According to the Martyrdom of Polycarp he died a martyr, bound and burned at the stake, then stabbed when the fire failed to touch him.[2] Polycarp is regarded as a saint in the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran churches.