Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. A grain of pollen, with its tough outer wall called the exine, travels by wind of by animals to a female flower structure. There is begins the process of fertilization. There are two nuclei in one pollen grain – the first one is the tube nucleus and grows an actual tube from the stigma – the sticky tip of the female flower structure where the pollen must land -- all the way down to the ovary where the eggs, or ovules, are found. Then the generative nucleus joins with the egg cell and actual fertilization occurs. Some plants require another individual or another cultivar to provide pollen – the plant may be self-infertile or the female flower may not be receptive when that individual plant produces its own pollen. That’s why some plants, like apples, must have pollinator planted nearby.
