Chasmogamy (redirected from chasmogamous)

chasmogamy [kaz′mäg·ə·mē]

(botany)

The production of a hermaphroditic floral type that opens at anthesis and may be visited by an insect vector, providing a means of cross-pollination.

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Chasmogamy 

pollination in flowers with an open perianth; an adaptation to cross-pollination. Many plants with chasmogamic flowers are still self-pollinators; for example, in peas and other papilionaceous plants chasmogamy may occur in the buds before the flowers open, and in Chamaenerion angustifolium chasmogamy may occur at the end of the flowering period, as a reserve method of pollination, in the event normal cross-pollination has not occurred. Self-pollination before the opening of the flower is the initial stage in the transition to cleistogamy, when the function has already changed (the plant has transferred to self-pollination), but the structure has remained as before (an open perianth).