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pollination

/pɑlɪˈneɪʃɪn/
/pɒlɪˈneɪʃən/
IPA guide

Other forms: pollinations

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."

Definitions of pollination
  1. noun
    transfer of pollen from the anther to the stigma of a plant
    synonyms: pollenation
    see moresee less
    types:
    cross-pollination
    fertilization by transfer of pollen from the anthers of one flower to the stigma of another
    self-pollination
    fertilization by transfer of pollen from the anthers to the stigma of the same flower
    cleistogamy
    the production of small nonopening self-pollinating flowers
    type of:
    fecundation, fertilisation, fertilization, impregnation
    creation by the physical union of male and female gametes; of sperm and ova in an animal or pollen and ovule in a plant
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