How Long Does It Take to Cross-Pollinate a Flower?

The Process

• The huge diversity of plant species and flower structure among them makes the process of pollination easy and straightforward to more complex and challenging. Using a paintbrush, fingertip or cotton swab, tickle the pollen-laced stamen of the first plant and then smear the pollen onto the sticky receptive point on the pistil on another plant's flower. This may take as little as a couple seconds to upward of a minute. The plant does the rest of the work to ensure fertilization and the formation of seeds. Depending on plant species, pollination may occur in one event or require multiple pollen transfers to ensure enough pollen was present on the pistil to create the greatest number of seeds in the fruit or cone. Cross-pollination is successful only on plants of the same species, as their genetic code pairings match up perfectly.

Easiness

• Cross-pollination is easiest in large flowers where both male and female sex organs are highly visible and accessible. If the two plants are physically close, it's not only easier, but less time is needed to cross-pollinate their blossoms. A sunflower or tulip is easier to pollinate with human hands than a forget-me-not or mango blossom. In the latter examples, pollination is more difficult and time consuming on tiny flowers. When different gender flowers exist on different plant locations or on separate plants, or when the shape of the flower is complex and irregular, pollination is more challenging as more time is invested in moving pollen and locating the female pistil among petals or oddly shaped flower parts. Plants with thousands of blossoms take more time for thorough cross-pollination than plants that bear only one blossom at a time.

In Nature

• Numerous conditions and scenarios exist in nature that determines the time needed for cross-pollination. The central time-consuming factor is how far pollen must travel between plants. In maple or oak trees, the strength of the wind across the day determines how quickly and far pollen is airborne. In cherry and dill plants, warm air temperatures and absence of rain allows bees and butterflies to visit flowers thoroughly. In some orchids, the structure of the flower is so specialized that time passes before the one correctly sized or shaped bee wriggles through the flower to facilitate pollination. Some plants only open their flowers for a short period, so it's vitally important that pollination occurs quickly, such as the case with day lilies or watermelons.

Pollen Amount

• Plants make huge numbers of pollen grains, thereby increasing the chances that a pollen grain somehow reaches a female pistil. In some plants with multiple sex organs in their flowers -- a sunflower for example -- numerous insect visits are required so all female pistils receive pollen. If a gardener acts as the pollinator, it's better to delicately smear larger amounts of pollen, if available, onto a pistil. This ensures enough pollen grains exist for fertilization and the formation of the fullest number of seeds in the cone or fruit.