pollen

/ˈpɑlən/

/ˈpɒlɪn/

Other forms: pollens

Pollen is the grainy stuff inside a flowering plant that makes it possible for the plant to reproduce. Insects, birds, people, and the wind help to spread pollen between plants.

When pollen spreads to the female part of a plant, it germinates, or begins the process of growing a new plant. When pollen spreads like this, it's called pollination, and it's how plants reproduce. Pollen is great for plants but not so great if you have hay fever, an allergy to pollen. The first meaning of pollen was "fine flour," which is what pollen looks like.

Definitions of pollen

1. noun

   the fine spores that contain male gametes and that are borne by an anther in a flowering plant
   types:

   pollinium

   a coherent mass of pollen grains (as in orchids)

   ragweed pollen

   pollen of the ragweed plant is a common allergen

   type of:

   spore

   a small usually single-celled asexual reproductive body produced by many nonflowering plants and fungi and some bacteria and protozoans and that are capable of developing into a new individual without sexual fusion