double fertilization

noun

: fertilization characteristic of a flowering plant in which one sperm cell fuses with the egg to form a zygote and another fuses with the polar nuclei to form the endosperm

The discovery of the unique process of double fertilization in flowering plants toward the end of the nineteenth century helped to shed important light on the essential role of a second fusion event in the formation of endosperm in angiosperm seeds.

—V. Raghavan

Examples of double fertilization in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

These double fertilization events seem to explain at least some honeybee gynandromorphs, though male-female hybrids in other species can manifest in other ways. —Katherine J. Wu, Smithsonian Magazine, 2 Apr. 2020

Word History

First Known Use

1899, in the meaning defined above