POLLEN

pollen

(noun) the fine spores that contain male gametes and that are borne by an anther in a flowering plant

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Noun

pollen (usually uncountable, plural pollens)

A fine granular substance produced in flowers. Technically a collective term for pollen grains (microspores) produced in the anthers of flowering plants. (This specific usage dating from mid 18th century.)

(obsolete) Fine powder in general, fine flour. (16th-century usage documented by the OED.)

Verb

pollen (third-person singular simple present pollens, present participle pollening, simple past and past participle pollened)

(transitive, poetic) To cover with, or as if with, pollen.

Source: Wiktionary

Pol"len, n. Etym: [L. pollen fine flour, fine dust; cf. Gr.

1. Fine bran or flour. [Obs.] Bailey.

2. (Bot.)

Definition: The fecundating dustlike cells of the anthers of flowers. See Flower, and Illust. of Filament. Pollen grain (Bot.), a particle or call of pollen.

– Pollen mass, a pollinium. Gray.

– Pollen sac, a compartment of an anther containing pollen, -- usually there are four in each anther.

– Pollen tube, a slender tube which issues from the pollen grain on its contact with the stigma, which it penetrates, thus conveying, it is supposed, the fecundating matter of the grain to the ovule.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition