fructification

American  

[fruhk-tuh-fi-key-shuhn, frook-, frook-] / ˌfrʌk tə fɪˈkeɪ ʃən, ˌfrʊk-, ˌfruk- /

noun

1. act of fructifying; the fruiting of a plant, fungus, etc.

2. the fruit itself.

3. the organs of fruiting; fruiting body.

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fructification British  

/ ˌfrʊk-, ˌfrʌktɪfɪˈkeɪʃən /

noun

1. the act or state of fructifying

2. the fruit of a seed-bearing plant

3. any spore-bearing structure in ferns, mosses, fungi, etc

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fructification Scientific  

/ frŭk′tə-fĭ-kā′shən /

1. The producing of fruit by an angiosperm.

2. A seed-bearing or spore-bearing structure.

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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

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 Gray, Asa

Most numerous was Gigartina radula, just in a state of fructification.

From Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara, Volume I (Commodore B. Von Wullerstorf-Urbair,) Undertaken by Order of the Imperial Government in the Years 1857, 1858, & 1859, Under the Immediate Auspices of His I. and R. Highness the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, Commander-In-Chief of the Austrian Navy. by Scherzer, Karl Ritter von

The first group, Ectocarpeæ, is composed of thread-like jointed plants, the fructification of which consists of external spores, sometimes formed by the swelling of a branchlet.

From Sea-Weeds, Shells and Fossils by Gray, Peter

In this species the fructification is conical or lanceolate, and is found in April on short, stout, unbranched stems which have large loose sheaths.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 6 "Home, Daniel" to "Hortensius, Quintus" by Various

The first chapter gives an account of the principal writers on botany; the second, of systems of classification; the third, of the roots, stems, and leaves of plants; the fourth, of the parts of fructification.

From Lives of Eminent Zoologists, from Aristotle to Linnæus with Introductory remarks on the Study of Natural History by MacGillivray, William

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