pollen tube

noun

, Botany.

1. the protoplasmic tube that is extruded from a germinating pollen grain and grows toward the ovule.

pollen tube

noun

1. a hollow tubular outgrowth that develops from a pollen grain after pollination, grows down the style to the ovule, and conveys male gametes to the egg cell

pollen tube

1. The slender tube that is formed after pollination by division of the tube cell in a pollen grain. The pollen tube penetrates the ovule and releases the male gametes.

Word History and Origins

Origin of pollen tube¹

First recorded in 1825–35

Example Sentences

If it does, the silk grows a pollen tube, enabling the male genes to travel towards the ovule and fertilize it.

From Popular-Science

And he observed the extension of the embryo-sacs up the style and the union of the pollen tube with the tip of the embryo-sac.

From Project Gutenberg

I spent pretty well the whole day over them, and got three, and several in the pollen tube, not yet quite ripe.

From Project Gutenberg

This embryo is the product of fertilization of a germinal vesicle by a pollen tube.

From Project Gutenberg

The branches of the stigma are very thin, formed apparently of three rows of cells of hardly greater diameter than pollen-tube.

From Project Gutenberg

Each ovule, which is reached by a pollen tube, swells up and becomes a seed.

From Project Gutenberg