pollination

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Process by which pollen is transferred from one plant to another. The male gametes are contained in pollen grains, which must be transferred from the anther to the stigma in angiosperms (flowering plants), and from the male cone to the female cone in gymnosperms (cone-bearing plants). Fertilization (not the same as pollination) occurs after the growth of the pollen tube to the ovary. Self-pollination occurs when pollen is transferred to a stigma of the same flower, or to another flower on the same plant; cross-pollination occurs when pollen is transferred to another plant. This involves external pollen-carrying agents, such as wind (see anemophily), water (see hydrophily), insects, birds (see ornithophily), bats, and other small mammals.

Animal pollinators carry the pollen on their bodies and are attracted to the flower by scent, or by the sight of the petals. Most flowers are adapted for pollination by one particular agent only. Bat-pollinated flowers tend to smell of garlic, rotting vegetation, or fungus. Those that rely on animals generally produce nectar, a sugary liquid, or surplus pollen, or both, on which the pollinator feeds. Thus the relationship between pollinator and plant is an example of mutualism, in which both benefit. However, in some plants the pollinator receives no benefit (as in pseudocopulation), while in others, nectar may be removed by animals that do not effect pollination.

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