Pollen Pollen Pollen is a fine to coarse powdery substance comprising pollen grains which are male microgametophytes of seed plants, which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard coat made of sporopollenin that protects the gametophytes during the process of their movement from the stamens to the pistil of flowering plants, or from the male cone to the female cone of coniferous plants. If pollen lands on a compatible pistil or female cone, it germinates, producing a pollen tube that transfers the sperm to the ovule containing the female gametophyte. Individual pollen grains are small enough to require
Pollen drift the distance it can travel and via what methods, and how to plant their fields to avoid unwanted cross-pollination. Corn pollen is particularly prone to pollen drift. Corn plants release their pollen for around a week, and an entire field may take up to two weeks to completely release its pollen; pollen release usually shows a spike two to three days after half the plants have released their pollen. Each individual plant can produce 4 to 5 million individual pollen grains. Its pollen is among the largest particles that can be found in the air, and is spherical in its