selfed
- 1Produced by self-pollination, where a plant's own pollen fertilizes its flowers rather than pollen arriving from another individual.
The selfed lines bred true for flower color over several generations.
Researchers found the selfed offspring more uniform than naturally cross-pollinated plants.
Similarinbred
Oppositecrossed
Note
Here the plant does reproduce through seed, but pollen and ovule come from the same individual. The practical consequence is uniformity. Selfed offspring show increased homozygosity compared with outcrossed progeny, which is why breeders speak of selfed lines that breed true. In botanical writing its natural opposite is outcrossed or cross-pollinated. Keep it distinct from the clonal sense, where no seed forms at all.
- 2Produced by vegetative propagation, growing a new plant from a cutting, root, or other plant part rather than from seed.
The selfed stock matched the parent plant exactly, since no seeds were involved.
Nurseries sell selfed shrubs grown from cuttings rather than from seed.
Similarclonal
Note
A botanist's adjective built plainly from self + -ed: the plant has, in effect, made more of itself. Nothing sexual happens here. A cutting or root grows from the somatic tissue of a single parent into a genetically identical clone. That sets it apart from the self-pollinated meaning, where seed still forms. Like most technical labels it is not comparable: a plant is selfed or it is not.
Practice
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Origin
Formed from "self" combined with the suffix "-ed".