Not the gender you thought they were

[Eloah]

Lots of good info

I think I see where the misunderstanding is, on my part. I was inferring this line:

stems from the trait of flowering at irregular times

as the process of being able to give birth, not the birth itself. Which actually makes more sense, since how would you name a new Sylph xio/xia if they all flower together. I was combining the above with the later line you mentioned:

the lateblooms' inability to produce podlings

in the same way some humans are "unable" to have children. Its not like it's a definite no, pre se, it's just that the natural occurrence doesn't happen as it should. The most common I know of for human women is Polycystic Overies, where a woman can look very "fertile" but, carrying a naturally conceived child to term is almost impossible without outside assistance. So all of the info was there I was just viewing it from my own perspective since it's what I've experienced; well my mother, I'm the miracle baby, lol?

As for the part about the xia Sylph, why would they be lacking the pistil, why couldn't they lack the stamen?

And, as for what to call each "gender", i dunno, maybe they flipped a gil, XD

Also, I personally know that plants have "genders", mostly cause of watermelon, but felt it was just easier to say bisexual, since that's the easiest classification without going into too much detail. I too used Wikipedia and saw all of the terms and was like "okay I don't wanna right a book, so, let's just say bisexual and be done with it"

Also as for the Sylph speech of "this one" and "that one", I think it's more the localization team getting around the fact that English doesn't have a gender neutral pronoun like Japanese. Not sure about French or German though. I remember hearing something about their speech patterns, and how it is in Japanese, it couldn't be replicated in English, so they made their own that still gets across the same feel. I could try and find it but it's been a few years, I think it was mentioned when Ramuh was released since his song has the Sylphic Language in it.

Been awhile since I checked, but I'm pretty sure the lore book states Twintania is female.

Yup Lore Book says she

[Iscah]

As for the part about the xia Sylph, why would they be lacking the pistil, why couldn't they lack the stamen?

It seems more logical to me, and less convoluted.

If they are defined by their inability to produce seed, it seems more probable that it's because they don't have a pistil, than that every one of them has a nonfunctional one, or has no chance to receive pollen from the everblooms (who are presumably flowering throughout the season, judging from that name, and should be available at whatever time a latebloom flowers).

If they only have stamens, they can pollinate the everblooms.

If they only have nonfunctional pistils, they are not producing either pollen or seeds - which means they are not passing on their genes in any form, and that seems improbable for a large section of a population. (From a quick count through the list of NPC names in East Shroud, the number of xio and xia sylphs seem to be roughly equal.)