Totally. Each pollen grain is a more or less self-sufficient organism, at least for its task, which is being transported to another receptive plant, then producing sperm for fertilization.
The closest analogy would be if humans had loads of tiny testicles that they sprayed everywhere, hoping one would hook up with a female so it could produce sperm in them for fertilization.
Yep! Pollen are haploid, but technically they’re actually monoploid (or equivalent, depending on polyploidy) given they’re a fully functioning organism.
This is surprisingly common. All the pollen, male bees and ants (and actually a bunch of males in the order Hymenoptera grow from unfertilized eggs), and algae, for example. Certain fungi go through most of their lifecycles haploid and have a brief diploid phase, which undergoes meiosis to get right back to haploid, albeit for gametes this time. Tons of stuff! Nature is fucking wild.
Wait really?
Totally. Each pollen grain is a more or less self-sufficient organism, at least for its task, which is being transported to another receptive plant, then producing sperm for fertilization.
The closest analogy would be if humans had loads of tiny testicles that they sprayed everywhere, hoping one would hook up with a female so it could produce sperm in them for fertilization.
Polen has a complete genome?
Yep! Pollen are haploid, but technically they’re actually monoploid (or equivalent, depending on polyploidy) given they’re a fully functioning organism.
This is surprisingly common. All the pollen, male bees and ants (and actually a bunch of males in the order Hymenoptera grow from unfertilized eggs), and algae, for example. Certain fungi go through most of their lifecycles haploid and have a brief diploid phase, which undergoes meiosis to get right back to haploid, albeit for gametes this time. Tons of stuff! Nature is fucking wild.
Edit: haha, I just saw my Dad pun.
Wait so then what happens when it combines with the sternum(?)?
Do you mean the pistil? The stamen is the part of a flower that creates pollen.
Assuming yes, it grows a tube down the pistil into the ovary, then sends sperm to fertilize the flower’s ovules.