cross-fertilization

Noun

cross-fertilization (countable and uncountable, plural cross-fertilizations)

1. Fertilization by the union of gametes of different plants (sometimes of different species).
2. (broadly) The mutual exchange of ideas or concepts from different fields for mutual benefit.
   • His fame led to some curious cultural cross-fertilizations. In Japan, the Yamamoto-clad singer stirred up a singular fanaticism—so much so that Japanese charter flights traveled all the way to Kinshasa, while in Tokyo, clone bands skilled at his kind of soukous multiplied.2002, Frank Tenaille, translated by Steven Toussaint and Hope Sandrine, Music Is the Weapon of the Future: Fifty Years of African Popular Music, Chicago, IL: Lawrence Hill Books, →ISBN, page 183