What is Pollination?

Pollination is an essential part of the reproductive cycle for angiosperms - flowering plants. About 88.7% of multicellular plant species currently present on the planet are angiosperms, so all of these need pollination of some kind.

Just like humans, plants have two different kinds of reproductive cells called gametophytes. These cells contain half the amount of DNA as a normal cell in the rest of the plant, and when they are combined in the process of fertilisation, they form a seed.

Plants have pollen grains which contain the male gametophyte, and female gametophytes, produced by a structure called the ovum, inside the ovary.

Pollination is the process of transferring a pollen cell from the anther of a flowering plant to the stigma, where it can then travel down specialised pollen tubes to the ovary, where it can fertilise an egg cell.

Once fertilisation has occurred, a seed can grow, ready to make a new plant.

 

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