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pollen tube

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

First recorded in 1825–35
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for pollen tube

Historical Examples

  • The pollen-tube is constant because it has proved to be indispensable.

    Darwin and Modern Science

    A.C. Seward and Others

  • The male-cells are carried to their destination in the tip of the pollen-tube.

  • The pollen-tube must penetrate the whole length of each thread of corn-silk in order to reach the ovules.

  • It is down these style-branches that the pollen-tube passes on its way to the ovules or embryo seeds.

    The Apple-Tree

    L. H. Bailey

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

British Dictionary definitions for pollen tube

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
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
pollen tube in Science

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.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.