verb

• 1with object Fertilize (a plant) using pollen from another plant of the same species.

  ‘he cross-fertilized some batches of plants’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Canola pollen can also cross-fertilise related plants such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and many common weed species.’
  • ‘For example, he cites their unwillingness to concede that pollen from GM crops could cross-fertilize nearby conventional or organic varieties.’
  • ‘In a typical experiment he cross-fertilized plants grown from green seeds with plants grown from yellow seeds and found that the resulting hybrid seeds were all yellow.’
  • ‘These controlled environments allow growers to use natural predators to fight pests and use bumble bees to cross-fertilise the plants.’

  Synonyms

  hybridize, cross-breed, interbreed, cross-fertilize, cross-pollinate, intercross, mix, intermix, blend

  1. 1.1no object (of two plants) fertilize each other.
     ‘fennel should not be grown near to dill, otherwise the two will cross-fertilize’
     More example sentences

     • ‘The potential for hybridization is supported by the fact that the three species cross-fertilize in the lab.’
     • ‘Botanists have classically viewed this polymorphism as an outcrossing mechanism, since in most situations reciprocal morphs can only cross-fertilize.’
     • ‘But the ecosystem is too interdependent for GM and non-GM crops to coexist without cross-fertilising.’
     • ‘Physid snails usually cross-fertilize but are capable of occasional self-fertilization.’
     • ‘Sweet peas had little tendency to cross-fertilize.’
     • ‘In some cases, he found that species were divided up into structurally distinctive groups which could freely cross-fertilize between groups but were nearly or completely sterile within a group.’
     • ‘The two cross-fertilise easily to form a hybrid, which is apparently often sold to un-suspecting buyers who simply ask for bluebells.’
     • ‘Previous studies suggest inbred green-veined-orchid embryos are twice as likely to abort as those arising from cross-fertilized flowers.’
     • ‘In contrast, the sequences that were sampled from the cross-fertilizing species C. remanei did not cluster into low-diversity groups of haplotypes for either of the nuclear genes sampled.’

• 2Stimulate the development of (something) with an exchange of ideas or information.

  ‘sessions between the two groups cross-fertilize ideas and provide insights’

  More example sentences

  • ‘This is precisely how astrological ideas cross-fertilise each other and grow.’
  • ‘Music defines place not by isolating it, but rather by opening its borders so that different genres, styles, and repertories cross the borders and cross-fertilize one another.’
  • ‘First, do the different organizations that are discussed in the various chapters cross-fertilize one another?’
  • ‘This pairing of allied opposites enabled writers to cross-fertilise the two disciplines and personalities to help build on-screen tensions.’
  • ‘Another concept which intrigues and impresses the author is the simple idea of London, a large cosmopolitan city which is culturally dominant, a teeming hive where words and ideas rub off each other and cross-fertilise.’
  • ‘I'm not aware of organized attempts to cross-fertilize east and west with each other's prayer traditions, but that doesn't mean it's not happening.’
  • ‘Ethnomusicology has continued to cross-fertilize in intra and interdisciplinary ways.’
  • ‘Thus, despite the black church's disdain for blues music, it is not surprising that black sacred and secular forms have cross-fertilized each other.’
  • ‘In no other part of the world have religious and cultural plurality co-existed and cross-fertilized each other so creatively.’
  • ‘Inevitably she broadened her repertoire to take in mainstream as well as early works and now admits that the two disciplines have cross-fertilised.’