Re: [ HYB: questions - pollen, cristata X bearded]
- To: i*@egroups.com
- Subject: Re: [[iris-talk] HYB: questions - pollen, cristata X bearded]
- From: J* C*
- Date: Mon, 01 May 2000 21:42:43 PDT
>A complete pollen "Grain" is needed to accomplish pollination. I don't
>think a single cell from a grain carries all the necessary components.
Each grain apparently carries two sperm cells. One combines with the ovum to
form the embryo, and the other combines to form the endosperm.
I was mistakenly under the impression that each bit of pollen visible to the
eye was a cluster of smaller pollen grains. These seem large, to be carrying
only two germ cells, but then, there's the hens egg which contains a huge
single cell.
>individual grains are certainly large enough to be seen.
I always maintain that just because you can't see something, doesn't mean
it's not there. My eyes aren't picking up such fine detail as they used to.
>As a bee keeper, I don't think that the pollen that is collected by an
>individual bee affects the poison in the stinger sac.
I was under the impression that what the bee eats effects the chemical
composition of it's poison. I don't know much about what bees eat, but I
guess it has some relationship to the pollen they carry. I thought this was
the reason people can have major reactions to 1 bee sting, then no reaction
at all to the next. I have known people who carry injectible cortisone at
all times, for fear of death by bee sting, only to find that they have
little or no reaction to a repeat sting.
>All true, but particularily in the case of pollen, the method that it >is
>introduced to the body has a major impact on how the body reacts to >it.
>Ingesting it orally is not nearly the same as having it introduced
>through the mucous membranes of the nasal passages.
Maybe so, but a lot of what goes up your nose is ingested anyway. There are
also things like threshhold levels that dictate whether you react
allergically to something or not.
Rather a pity to develop an allergy to the pollen of your favourite flower!
Cheers, Jan Clark
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