Flower attract and use insects, bats, birds or other animals to transfer pollen from one flower to the next. Often they are specialized in shape and have an arrangement of the stamens that ensures that pollen grains are transferred to the bodies of the pollinator when it lands in search of its attractant (such as nectar, pollen, or a mate). In pursuing this attractant from many flowers of the same species, the pollinator transfers pollen to the stigmas—arranged with equally pointed precision—of all of the flowers it visits. Many flowers rely on simple proximity between flower parts to ensure pollination. Others,
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