Article
Article
Pollen
Article By:
Cranwell, Lucy M. Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.
Last reviewed:January 2021
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.533100
The small male reproductive bodies produced in the pollen sacs of seed plants (gymnosperms and angiosperms) [Fig. 1]. The term comes unchanged from Latin, meaning fine dust or flour, and was popularized by Carl Linnaeus in 1751 (but used since 1523). Pollen is usually carried by wind or insects to the sticky stigmas of angiosperms or to the naked ovules of gymnosperms. Fertilization, which follows pollination within a wide time range—minutes, hours, a year in Agathis, 15 months or more in juniper, and 2 years in stone pine (Pinus pinea)—is usually effected only by pollen of the same species. See also: Flower; Plant reproduction
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