Pollen magnification to see detail. The study of pollen is called palynology and is highly useful in paleoecology, paleontology, archaeology, and forensics. Pollen in plants is used for transferring haploid male genetic material from the anther of a single flower to the stigma of another in cross-pollination. In a case of self-pollination, this process takes place from the anther of a flower to the stigma of the same flower. Pollen itself is not the male gamete. Each pollen grain contains vegetative (non-reproductive) cells (only a single cell in most flowering plants but several in other seed plants) and a generative (reproductive)
Bee pollen in the chambers of honeybee hives, and sometimes in wood and mud created by female ground-nesting bees, such as the leafcutting bee. With the leafcutting bee, when the pollen ball is complete, a single female lays an egg on top of the pollen ball, and seals the brood cell. It differs from field gathered pollen as honey bee secretions induce a fermentation process, where biochemical transformations break down the walls of flower pollen grains and render the nutrients more readily available. Forager bees that gather pollen do not eat it themselves, since they stop producing the proteolytic enzymes necessary to