What plants require cross-pollination?
| Cross Pollination | |
|---|---|
| Seen in | Insects: Apples, grapes, plums, pears, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, runner beans, pumpkins, daffodils, tulips, lavender Wind: grasses, catkins, dandelions, maple trees, and goat's beard. |
| Transfer | Wind, insects, water, animals, etc. |
Cross-pollination is found in both angiosperms (flowering plants) and gymnosperms (cone-bearing plants) and facilitates cross-fertilization and outbreeding.
But, not every pollination is beneficial for your garden. There is a type of pollination (cross-pollination) you want to avoid, and for some plants, you don't want them to pollinate at all. As a gardener, it's important to know what pollination is because it is vital to a thriving garden and to be able to save seeds.
Cross-pollination is the process of applying pollen from one flower to the pistils of another flower. Pollination occurs in nature with the help of insects and wind.
Pumpkins, grapes, grasses, apples, maple trees, daffodils, and other plants are available. Flowers with chasmogamous petals allow for cross-pollination.
Cross pollination is a natural method in which transfer of pollen takes place from an anther of a flower of one plant to a stigma of a flower of another plant of the same species. For example, emasculation (removing the male parts- the anthers).
Cross-pollination is essential for apples, pears, most sweet cherries, and most Japanese plums. Cross-pollination is not essential, but does improve the number of fruit that form on apricots, European plums/prunes, tart cherries, peaches and nectarines. Pollen is primarily transferred by honeybees.
If you have two different kinds of roses planted close together, they could cross pollinate and produce a different color rose all together.
Sunflowers are plants that can self-pollinate and cross-pollinate but sunflowers are more likely to cross-pollinate. Accordingly, if cross-pollination does not occur, a sunflower as a hermaphrodite plant can pollinate itself-even though this mechanism is inefficient with the rate of success at 2%.
One tree is not enough
To set fruit, the vast majority of apple trees require a different variety grown nearby for pollination. While some apple varieties are self-pollinating, even they produce more fruit with another variety nearby.
What fruit trees do not need cross-pollination?
Self-pollinating fruit trees include apricots, nectarines, peaches, and sour cherries; whereas fruit trees that require pollinators include apples, pears, plums, and sweet cherries.
In some varieties, particularly pear, a small number of fruit can develop without pollination. Fruit trees that do not require cross pollination by a different variety are self-fruitful. They bear fruit when one variety is planted alone.
Tomatoes don't cross-pollinate easily because they usually self-pollinate before the flowers open. However, if a bee arrives loaded with pollen from another variety, a cross or hybrid may occur.
Among other plants that can self-pollinate are many kinds of orchids, peas, sunflowers and tridax. Most of the self-pollinating plants have small, relatively inconspicuous flowers that shed pollen directly onto the stigma, sometimes even before the bud opens.
Tomatoes are self-pollinating, meaning they have flowers that contain both the male and female parts, so more than one plant is not needed for reproduction. The pollen falls within the flower to pollinate itself.
Tropical hibiscus is one of the easiest plants to cross-pollinate by hand. All you do is take the pollen from one species and brush or rub it onto the stamen (the long anther-looking filament at the center of the blossom) of another species, and you can create an entirely new plant.
Sugarcane is a cross-pollinating species although selfing occurs at low levels. Although sugarcane flowers often have reduced male fertility they are rarely male sterile. Sugarcane pollen is very small and wind dispersed.
Wheat is a self-pollinating crop that produces seed when pollen from anthers fertilises the receptive ovary in the same flower of a single parent plant. Hybrid wheat, where seed is produced from two different parent plants, requires cross-pollination which is rare in nature (normally <1%).
Cross-pollination happens through the actions of pollinators, such as insects and other animals, or by wind blowing pollen from plant to plant. In the home vegetable garden, tomato, watermelon and cucumbers are cross-pollinated by insects and sweet corn is wind pollinated.
New varieties are created as a result of cross-pollination. Seeds are produced in more significant quantities and are more viable. Healthier offsprings are produced.
