Pollen grains often have air bladders, or vesicles, called sacci. The sacci are not actually balloons, but are sponge-like, and increase the buoyancy of the pollen grain and help keep it aloft in the wind, as most gymnosperms are anemophilous. Pollen can be monosaccate, (containing one saccus) or bisaccate (containing two sacci). Modern pine, spruce, and yellowwood trees all produce saccate pollen. The transfer of pollen grains to the female reproductive structure (pistil in angiosperms) is called pollination. This transfer can be mediated by the wind, in which case the plant is described as anemophilous (literally wind-loving). Anemophilous plants typically produce
Spore Spore In biology, a spore is a unit of sexual or asexual reproduction that may be adapted for dispersal and for survival, often for extended periods of time, in unfavourable conditions. Spores form part of the life cycles of many plants, algae, fungi and protozoa. Bacterial spores are not part of a sexual cycle but are resistant structures used for survival under unfavourable conditions. Myxozoan spores release amoebulae into their hosts for parasitic infection, but also reproduce within the hosts through the pairing of two nuclei within the plasmodium, which develops from the amoebula. Spores are usually haploid and unicellular