FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Mammals only need one sperm cell to make contact in order to have successful fertilization.

Is that the same with plants only needing one pollen grain to make contact with the stigma or would the stigma need one pollen grain per ovules in the flower?

I'm trying to learn how to pollinate nepenthes flowers but I was given so little pollen to work with. I'm assuming only a light coating is needed vs covering the entire stigma?

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Technically, one pollen grain could fertilize a flower. One grain can fertilize one (or maybe two, depending on the plant?) seed, so theoretically if you fertilized a Nepenthes flower with a single pollen grain (and it actually took, which isn't necessarily guaranteed) you'd get a bunch of chaff with one or two viable seeds in that pod.

Assuming, of course, that's enough to trigger the plant to let the pod develop, which I can't say I'm currently educated on the details of.

That is, however, to say that you don't have to hit every ovule in the flower - Flowering plants would be in big trouble if they needed that! The more you'll get, the more likely it will be that you get more viable seeds (some grains might not germinate). A light coating should be fine.