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 core pollen grains and stratigraphy of the core so researchers frequently select locations where the sediments are under anaerobic conditions. The cores are then subjected to pollen analysis by palynologists who are able to infer the proportions of major plant types from the concentrations of different pollen types found in the cores. There are a number of tools used for coring, often with specialized uses: Pollen core A pollen core is a core sample of a medium containing a stratigraphic sequence of pollen. Analysis of the type and frequency of the pollen in each layer is used to study changes in