See Also: Pollen(medicine)
Pollen(health)
pollen(dictionary)
pollen(encyclopedia)
pollen(dictionary)
pollen antigen(medicine)
pollen extract(medicine)
pollen count(dictionary)
pollen mother cell(medicine)

pollen (iou)



pollen noun & verb. E16.
[Latin pollen, pollin- fine flour or powder, rel. to POLENTA, pulvis powder, puls (see PULSE noun2).]
A. noun.
Fine flour or meal; fine powder. E16-M18.
Botany. The male gametes or microspores of a seed plant, produced as a fine granular or powdery substance in the anthers of a flower or the male cone of a gymnosperm and usu. transported by wind or insects. M18.
Comb.: pollen analysis the analysis and identification of pollen grains; pollen analyst an expert in pollen analysis, a palynologist; pollen basket Entomology a flattened area fringed with hairs on the hind leg of a bee, used for carrying pollen; also called corbicula; pollen brush Entomology a brush or tuft of hairs forming part of a bee's pollen basket; pollen-cell (a) a cell which develops into a pollen grain, or forms part of one; (b) a cell in a honeycomb in which pollen is stored; pollen-chamber in some gymnosperms, a cavity at the tip of the ovule in which pollen is stored prior to germination; pollen count an index of the quantity of pollen in the air (esp. as affecting sufferers from hay fever), or preserved at an archaeological site; pollen diagram a sequence of pollen spectra from one site, showing changes in the frequencies of various types of pollen with depth or time; pollen fever = hay fever s.v. HAY noun1; pollen grain each of the tough-coated grains of which pollen consists (usu. a single cell); pollen index = pollen count above; pollen mother cell a cell in a seed plant which yields a tetrad of pollen grains after meiosis; pollen parent a plant from which pollen is taken to fertilize another plant artificially so as to produce a hybrid; pollen-plate a flat or hollow surface fringed with hairs on the legs or body of a bee, used to carry pollen; pollen profile = pollen diagram above; pollen-sac each of the chambers (in angiosperms usu. four in each anther) in which pollen is formed; pollen spectrum the relative frequencies of types of pollen in a sample; pollen-tube a tube formed by protrusion of the intine of a pollen grain when deposited on the stigma, which penetrates the style and conveys the fertilizing nuclei to the ovule; pollen zone Geology a distinct climate or vegetation zone (in the geological past) as determined by pollen analysis.
b. verb trans. Pollinate; cover or sprinkle with pollen. poet. rare. L19.