Cross Pollination

Cross-Pollination might seem like a complicated and tough word to comprehend at first, but the process is actually as easy as ABC. The first thing that one needs to know is the terminology of the phenomenon: Cross Pollination. Cross does not mean the symbol resembling X; it refers to the process of the intersection of the path of one flower’s pollen with another flower’s pistils. 

Pollination, on the other hand, refers to the process of transportation of the pollen grains from the parts of one flower, to another flower, by natural causes or agents, like wind or insects, or by human manipulation, which involves the manual process of attaching the pollen to the stigma of another flower. The seeds formed due to the process of Cross Pollination combine the hereditary features of both the parent flowers, and the resultant offspring (in the generic sense) are more enriching in variety than a flower that has undergone self-pollination. 

Sometimes Cross Pollination is used for maximum profits in the garden to create new varieties. Let us take the example of the/a very practiced hobby or pastime is to practice or perform cross pollination on different variants of tomato in order to attempt to create or produce new and better varieties. In the aforementioned cases, the varieties are cross-pollinated with a certain goal or aspiration in mind. 

Types of Cross-Pollination

One might think that cross-pollination itself is a type of pollination in itself. Then how is it that it can have an even further classification of its constituent types, and the question of how many types of cross-pollination there are also arises? Actually, what happens is that cross Pollination is classified according to the agents of pollination, that is, the elements which help in or facilitate the process of pollination. Let us look into the types:

• Entomophilic flowers

The group of flowers that undergo Cross-Pollination through insect agent is called entomophilic flowers. 

• Hydrophilous flowers

The collection of flowers that gets pollinated by means of water is called hydrophilous flowers.

• Anemophilous flowers

The sect of flowers that get affected by cross-pollination due to the effect of wind is called anemophilous flowers.

• Zoophilous flowers

The group of flowers undergoes Cross-pollination due to the effect of manipulation by living beings such as human beings, animals and bats, and birds.

Effect of Cross-Pollination 

Mainly, the effect of cross-pollination is observed when someone wants to enhance the quality of fruit derived from a certain plant or the characteristics of the flower of that plant. Although cross-pollination does change the most integral features of a fruit’s characteristics like its taste and color, other features like the texture and shelf life and size and shape were observed to be not affected by the phenomenon. The fruits tend to have a quite discernible difference in the number of their seeds, though. 

Advantages and Disadvantages of Cross-Pollination

Let us have a look at the advantages of the phenomenon first:

• The new resultant plant is quite an improvement on the older ones.
• The newer seeds that are thus produced from cross-pollination are more enriched in good features and viability.
• The probability of these seeds growing into healthier plants and properly germinating is quite high.
• The resultant product is quite enriched with variety in lieu of the fact that two species of the same origin or two different species can participate in cross-pollination.

Now, let us look at the disadvantages of the phenomenon:

• Much of the pollen grains get wasted while being transported from the anthers of one flower to the stigma of another flower.
• Cross-Pollination may cause the induction of unwanted features in fruits or flowers.
• Cross Pollination is a great deal of a bet to play if the plants are far apart. The process becomes worthless then, as most of the pollen gets wasted.

Conclusion

All in all, it can be said that cross-pollination is one of the most popular forms of reproduction in plants or fertilisation in plants. As plants are immobile and they cannot reproduce by themselves, there arises a need for vectors or change-inducing factors for cross-pollination to take place.