fructification
Americannoun
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act of fructifying; the fruiting of a plant, fungus, etc.
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the fruit itself.
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the organs of fruiting; fruiting body.
noun
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the act or state of fructifying
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the fruit of a seed-bearing plant
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any spore-bearing structure in ferns, mosses, fungi, etc
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The producing of fruit by an angiosperm.
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A seed-bearing or spore-bearing structure.
Etymology
Origin of fructification
1605–15; < Late Latin frūctificātion- (stem of frūctificātiō ) a bearing of fruit, equivalent to Latin frūctificāt ( us ) (past participle of frūctificāre; see fructify) + -iōn- -ion
Explanation
Fructification is the process of growing fruit. During fructification, a pear tree will first grow fragrant blossoms before they develop into delicious pears. When a plant undergoes fructification, you can also say it fructifies, or develops so that it can produce fruit. Both words stem from the Latin fructificare, "bear fruit," and its root fructus, which means both "fruit" and "profit or enjoyment." You can use fructification in this figurative way too, to mean "make productive." You might say, "The fructification of my lemonade stand means I can pay you back for all that sugar I borrowed!"
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The ascigerous fructification of lichens, forming masses of various shapes.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary by Noah Webster
The fructification consists of a globular sporocarp of considerable size, which is spirally enwrapped by tubular cells twisted around it: by the side of this is a smaller and globular antheridium.
From The Elements of Botany For Beginners and For Schools by Asa Gray
Any sudden decrease of warmth would be very prejudicial to the progress of vegetation through the successive stages of foliation, inflorescence and fructification.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 7 "Horticulture" to "Hudson Bay" by Various
Ferns, with fronds circinate in vernation, bearing the fructification on the under surface or beneath the margin.
From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Asa Gray
Spore, a body resulting from the fructification of Cryptogamous plants, in them the analogue of a seed.
From The Elements of Botany For Beginners and For Schools by Asa Gray
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