double fertilization

noun

: fertilization characteristic of flowering plants in which one sperm nucleus fuses with the egg nucleus to form the embryo and another fuses with two 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