Pollen can't walk, but it can grow! The pollen tube cell builds a long, thin tunnel to carry its cargo deep into a flower.
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A pollen grain holds just 2 or 3 tiny cells. The biggest one is the tube cell. Scientists also call it the vegetative cell.
It fills most of the grain and has its own nucleus. The smaller cell is the generative cell, which makes the sperm cells.
The small generative cell lives completely inside the tube cell. It's a cell inside a cell!
When pollen lands on the sticky top of the right flower, called the stigma, the tube cell starts to grow. It pushes out a long, thin pollen tube.
The tube grows only at its tip. It travels down through the flower to an ovule, where an egg cell is waiting. The sperm cells ride along inside the tube. When they reach the egg, a seed can start to form.
In corn, each strand of silk is part of a flower. A pollen tube has to grow all the way down a silk!
Press Grow the tube on the 3D model.
By Peekaboo Kidz. A fun video for kids.
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