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)
Corn silk Corn silk is part stigma and part style, providing a female flower surface to which pollen grains can adhere and defining the lengthy path through which the pollen must transmit its genetic material. The stigma is the very tip of the corn silk, which has a larger number of hairs to help pollen to adhere to it. Kernel formation in the cob requires pollination of the external corn silk by wind or insects. Usually several grains of pollen adhere, but only one will successfully participate in fertilization of the ovule to form a corn kernel. For the pollen grain, the