pollination

American  

[pol-uh-ney-shuhn] / ˌpɒl əˈneɪ ʃən /

noun

Botany.

• pollinations
  plural

1. the transfer of pollen from the anther to the stigma.

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pollination Scientific  

/ pŏl′ə-nā′shən /

1. The process by which plant pollen is transferred from the male reproductive organs to the female reproductive organs to form seeds. In flowering plants, pollen is transferred from the anther to the stigma, often by the wind or by insects. In cone-bearing plants, male cones release pollen that is usually borne by the wind to the ovules of female cones.

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pollination Cultural  

1. The carrying of pollen grains (the male sex cells in plants) to the female sex cells for fertilization. Pollination can occur between plants when pollen is carried by the wind or by insects such as the honeybee (see cross-fertilization), or within the same plant, in which case it is called self-fertilization.

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Closer Look

When a pollen grain lands on or is carried to the receptive tissue of a pistil known as the stigma, the flower has been pollinated. But this is only the first step in a complicated process that, if successful, leads to fertilization. The pollen grain contains two cells—a generative cell and a tube cell. The generative nucleus divides to form two sperm nuclei. The tube cell grows down into the pistil until it reaches one of the ovules contained in the ovary. The two sperm travel down the tube and enter the ovule. There, one sperm nucleus unites with the egg. The other sperm nucleus combines with the polar nuclei that exist in the ovule, completing the process known as double fertilization. These fertilized nuclei then develop into the endocarp, the tissue that feeds the embryo. The ovule itself develops into a seed that is contained in the flower's ovary (which ripens into a fruit). In gymnosperms, the ovule is exposed (that is, not contained in an ovary), and the pollen produced by the male reproductive structures lands directly on the ovule in the female reproductive structures. Fertilization in conifers can be slow in comparison to flowering plants—the pollen nuclei of pines, for example, take as long as 15 months to reach the ovule after landing on the female cone. And there are variations: In the ginkgo, the ovules fall off the tree and pollination occurs on the ground.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• postpollination
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• pollinations
  plural

Etymology

Origin of pollination

First recorded in 1870–75; pollinate + -ion

Explanation

Use the noun pollination to describe the reproduction of plants, whether it happens with the assistance of insects, other animals, or the wind. Pollination can happen when a bee moves pollen from a plant to another area, helping the plant to reproduce. Plants are fertilized by the transfer of pollen to other parts of the same plant, or to neighboring plants, through pollination. The root word is pollen, used in science writing since 1760 to mean "the fertilizing part of flowers," and earlier to mean "dust or fine flour."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pollination pollinations

"If the entire colony was exposed, this could lead to decreased pollination effectiveness and reduced honey production, risking colony survival and long-term stability."

From Science Daily ● Aug. 6, 2026

To illustrate how essential bee pollination is to our food supply, Mr. Hanson deconstructs a Big Mac.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026

For Odora and Odorysseus, siblings from a 2002 pollination, a double bloom is unlikely, Tam said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026

Amid a global biodiversity crisis, birds -- which play a vital role in pollination, seed dispersal and controlling insect populations -- are one of the fastest declining groups.

From Barron's ● May 20, 2026

Uncontrolled, open pollination would, over time, turn the species into a single, relatively homogeneous entity.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

To prevent bees from messing up the experiments with promiscuous pollinations, it was found necessary to clip the petals.

From Time Magazine Archive

Annually Boerner makes 10,000 hand pollinations, getting up to ten tiny seeds from each crossing.

From Time Magazine Archive

The number of nuts collected at the time of harvesting compared with the number of female flowers pollinated was taken as a measure of how successful the pollinations were.

From Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting Rochester, N.Y. August 31 and September 1, 1953 by Northern Nut Growers Association

This arises in part from the relatively large number of the heads on the plants, and in part from the completeness of the pollinations, through the action of the honey bee.

From Clovers and How to Grow Them by Thomas Shaw

If conveniences are at hand the work may be rapidly accomplished—several hundred pollinations being made in a single day by an active worker.

From The Gladiolus A Practical Treatise on the Culture of the Gladiolus by Matthew Crawford

Related Words

• breeding
• implantation
• procreation
• propagation