View source for Pollenizer

The words '''pollenizer''' ('''polleniser''') and [[pollination|pollinator]] are often confused. A pollenizer is the [[plant]] that provides [[pollen]]. A pollenizer is always a plant. A pollinator is the [[biotic]] agent that moves the pollen, whether it be [[bee]]s, [[moth]]s, [[bat]]s, or [[bird]]s, etc. 

The verb form '''to pollenize''', is to be the [[Pollen source|source of pollen]], or to be the sire of the next plant generation.

While some plants are capable of self pollenization, the term is more often used in [[pollination management]] as a plant that provides abundant, compatible, and viable pollen at the same [[flower]]ing time as the pollenized plant. For example most [[crabapple]] varieties are good pollenizers for any [[apple (fruit)|apple]] variety that blooms at the same time, and are often used in apple orchards for the purpose. Some apple [[cultivar]]s produce very little pollen; some produce pollen that is sterile, or incompatible with other apple varieties. These are poor pollenizers.

A pollenizer can also be the male plant in [[Plant sexuality|dioecious]] species (where entire plants are of a single sex), such as with [[kiwifruit]] or [[holly]].

Plants are sometimes mistakenly called pollinators. For example, some [[Nursery (horticulture)|nursery]] catalogs may say variety X should be planted as a pollinator for variety Y, when they actually should be referring to it as a pollenizer. Strictly, a plant can only be a pollinator when it is self fertile and it physically pollinates itself without the aid of an external pollinator, as in the case of [[apomictic]] species like some [[rowan]]s and [[Crataegus|hawthorn]]s. 

Note: pollenizer is the most common spelling in [[US English]], with polleniser in [[UK English]] and [[Australian English]]; occasionally one sees the alternative spellings pollinizer or polliniser.

''See also'': [[Pollination]]
[[Category:Pollination]]