SCV Outdoor Report: Pollen Navigation [1]

By:  Wendy Langhans

During allergy season , I sometimes wonder if pollen grains have their own navigation system .  If that’s true, then their map for the Santa Clarita Valley must have a fluorescent orange locator pin labeled “Wendy’s nose”.  (Thank goodness for antihistamines.)

But locating my nose is not pollen’s true mission; it’s true mission is reproduction.  The first stage of that mission is called pollination [3], the “transfer of pollen from the anther to the female stigma”.  (To see an illustration of the parts of a flower, click here [4].)  Once a grain of pollen lands on the stigma’s sticky surface, the second stage, known as fertilization, begins.  During this second stage, the pollen grain’s male reproductive cell (which carries the male genetic material) must find its way to the female reproductive cell, which is located deep inside the ovary.

It’s a long journey from the stigma down the style to the ovule.  How does the genetic material physically get to where its going and how does it navigate along the way?

Let’s start with how it physically gets there.  Each grain of pollen contains two nuclei.  One nucleus is for sexual reproduction; the second nucleus grows a pollen tube.  This pollen tube, which functions like a straw, provides a pathway to the egg.  To visualize this, picture an ear of corn covered with of corn silk.  Each strand of corn silk [5] contains a pollen tube.  (To watch a short video about pollen tubes, click here [6].)

And how does the pollen tube know which direction to grow?  This remains an open area of research.  However, scientists are looking for biochemical signals, chemicals produced in the ovary, that attract and direct the growth of the pollen tube.  In corn [7], for example, a peptide known as ZmEA1 may play a role in attracting the pollen tube.

So flowers produce navigational chemicals that help pollen grains complete their reproductive mission.  Now if only there were a chemical that would navigate them away from my nose.

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Upcoming Outdoor Events:

Trail Maintenance Schedule.  Come join our volunteers as they help maintain our trails.  Contact Steve at machiamist@aol.com [8] for time and place.

Wednesday mornings, June 6, 13, 20 & 27.
Saturday mornings, June 9 & 23.

Sunday, June 3, 7-9 PM at Towsley Canyon.  Silvery Beams.  How doe animals adapt to the night shift?  Join us as we explore Towsley Canyon by the light of the silvery moon.  Just for tonight - kids are encouraged to stay up past their bedtimes.  For directions and a trail map, click here [9].

New trail maps available.  If you’d like to explore a bit on your own, the City of Santa Clarita has just created a new website with trail maps  for our local open spaces: http://hikesantaclarita.com [10]/.

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You can listen to stories like this every Friday morning at 7:10 a.m. on "The SCV Outdoor Report", brought to you by your hometown radio station KHTS (AM1220) and by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority.

For the complete MRCA hike and activity schedule and for trail maps, click here [11] or go to www.LAMountains.com. [11]

Or check out our Facebook page  - L.A. Mountains [12].