Substances that provide essential nutrients for plant growth, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, or potassium. Generally used to promote or enhance growth characteristics. Fertilizers may be derived from raw plant material, composts, and other organic matter. Also refers to sexual reproduction using male pollen impregnate the female plant’s ovary to produce seeds.
Fertilisation or fertilization (see spelling differences), also known as generative fertilisation, syngamy and impregnation, is the fusion of gametes to give rise to a zygote and initiate its development into a new individual organism or offspring. While processes such as insemination or pollination, which happen before the fusion of gametes, are also sometimes informally referred to as fertilisation, these are technically separate processes. The cycle of fertilisation and development of new individuals is called sexual reproduction. During double fertilisation in angiosperms, the haploid male gamete combines with two haploid polar nuclei to form a triploid primary endosperm nucleus by the process of vegetative fertilisation.
English
Alternative forms
- fertilise (mostly British)
Etymology
From French fertiliser; equivalent to fertile + -ize.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈfɜː(ɹ)tɪlaɪz/
Verb
fertilize (third-person singular simple present fertilizes, present participle fertilizing, simple past and past participle fertilized)
- To make (the soil) more fertile by adding nutrients to it.
- (figuratively) To make more creative or intellectually productive.