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)
Pollen DNA barcoding that has grown in popularity due to the decreased costs associated with "next generation sequencing" (NGS) techniques and is being continually improved in efficiency including through the use of a dual-indexing approach. Some of the other major advantages include the savings in time and resources compared to microscopic identification. Identifying pollen is time consuming involving spreading pollen on a slide, staining the pollen to improve visibility, then focusing in on individual pollen grains and identifying them based on size, shape, as well as the shape and number of pores. If a pollen reference library is not available, then pollen has