cross-pollination

[ kraws-pol-uh-ney-shuhn, kros- ]

noun
  1. Botany. the transfer of pollen from the flower of one plant to the flower of a plant having a different genetic constitution.: Compare self-pollination.

  2. a sharing or interchange of knowledge, ideas, etc., as for mutual enrichment; cross-fertilization.

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Origin of cross-pollination

1
First recorded in 1880–85

Words Nearby cross-pollination

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use cross-pollination in a sentence

  • This observation demonstrated the necessity of great care to prevent cross-pollination.

  • In the first place we have the cross-pollination leading to the formation of the hybrid plant by cross-fertilisation.

    Disease in Plants | H. Marshall Ward
  • Chestnuts rarely set any nuts that produce mature seed from their own pollen but depend on cross-pollination.

  • By careful selection and cross pollination many and better varieties will be produced.

British Dictionary definitions for cross-pollination

cross-pollination

noun
  1. the transfer of pollen from the anthers of one flower to the stigma of another flower by the action of wind, insects, etc: Compare self-pollination

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for cross-pollination

cross-pollination

  1. The transfer of pollen from the male reproductive organ (an anther or a male cone) of one plant to the female reproductive organ (a stigma or a female cone) of another plant. Insects and wind are the main agents of cross-pollination. Most plants reproduce by cross-pollination, which increases the genetic diversity of a population (increases the number of heterozygous individuals). Mechanisms that promote cross-pollination include having male flowers on one plant and female flowers on another, having pollen mature before the stigmas on the same plant are chemically receptive to being pollinated, and having anatomical arrangements (such as stigmas that are taller than anthers) that make self-pollination less likely.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.