Pollen Tube

A pollen tube is part of the male gametophyte of seed plants. It acts as a conduit to transport the male gamete cells from the pollen grain, either from the stigma (in flowering plants) to the ovules at the base of the pistil, or directly through ovule tissue in some gymnosperms. In maize, this single cell can grow longer than 12 inches to traverse the length of the pistil.

Pollen tubes were first discovered by Giovanni Battista Amici.

Read more about Pollen Tube:  The Pollen Tube in Angiosperms, Pollen Tubes: An Excellent Model, Pollen Tube Guidance

Famous quotes containing the words pollen and/or tube:

    Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.
    James Russell Lowell (1819–1891)

    The last best hope of earth, two trillion dollars in debt, is spinning out of control, and all we can do is stare at a flickering cathode-ray tube as Ollie “answers” questions on TV while the press, resolutely irrelevant as ever, asks politicians if they have committed adultery. From V-J Day 1945 to this has been, my fellow countrymen, a perfect nightmare.
    Gore Vidal (b. 1925)