Can a flower be pollinated simultaneous by two different flowers?
Dec.23, 2009 in
Flowers
In other words if you have a female flower, can can it be pollinated by two different male flowers at the same time? So then half the offsprings will be from father # 1 and the other hald will be from father # 2?
December 23rd, 2009 at 10:23 am
Yes, that’s possible. Most flowers produce more than one seed, and each seed would be fertilized by a unique pollen grain. A pollinator which had visited more than one flower previously could deposit pollen from multiple flowers on the stigma during a single visit. Or in the case of wind pollination, the wind could carry the pollen from an entire field of flowers to a plant downwind.
That’s why when doing genetics studies like Mendel’s, or in trying to hybridize plants, plant scientists usually pollinate the flowers by hand – then you are certain of who’s your plant’s “daddy”.