double fertilization

noun

1. the fertilization process characteristic of flowering plants, in which one sperm cell of a pollen grain fertilizes an egg cell while a second fuses with two polar nuclei to produce a triploid body that gives rise to the endosperm.

double fertilization

1. The process in which the two sperm nuclei of a pollen grain unite with nuclei of the embryo sac of an angiosperm plant. One sperm nucleus unites with the egg to form the diploid zygote, from which the embryo develops. The other sperm unites with the two nuclei located in a single cell at the center of the embryo sac. Together these nuclei form the triploid nucleus of the cell from which the endosperm develops. Double fertilization in this form is unique to the angiosperms.

Word History and Origins

Origin of double fertilization¹

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

Occasionally a three-poled instead of a four-poled figure resulted from double fertilization.

From Project Gutenberg