WEBVTT - How Pollen Works 0:00:01.280 --> 0:00:04.720 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works 0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:12.960 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh 0:00:13.000 --> 0:00:15.400 Clark and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and that means 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:18.480 it's time for stuff you should know that itchy screezy 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:26.080 seezy scratchy addition, not scheezy. No, that's not itchy scratchy 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:28.960 sneezy edition. That's what I mean. There you go. It's 0:00:29.000 --> 0:00:30.880 funny how you can mix words together come up with 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:34.400 other words. You didn't mean to say, Jerry's eyes are 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:37.519 at itching. Yeah, well we should say. We were just 0:00:37.560 --> 0:00:39.840 talking about the pollen count here in Atlanta. That's pretty 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:42.519 much all we ever talked about. Ever when the camera's 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:46.120 not honor that mikes aren't recording that in Coca Cola. 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:49.680 Oh you know how everyone comes to Atlanta and they're like, oh, 0:00:49.760 --> 0:00:52.960 every street's named Peachtree. Let's go drink a coke because 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:57.200 so's the only two things we've ever had. Alright, Sorry, 0:00:57.360 --> 0:01:00.000 that's fun. So you want to talk about pollittin Moore 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:03.520 it's low right now in Atlanta thirty nine that's moderate. Yeah, 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:06.800 well low for us, right, but like according to the 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:09.920 pollen scale they scale that they used to count pollen 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:13.920 and then designated somewhere along the pollen spectrum. Thirty nine 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:18.440 is considered moderate, not even low moderate. When it's really 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:21.800 bad here in Georgia, it gets to about nine thousand. 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:26.160 Those are the few weeks that the the streets run 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:30.319 yellow with. When it rains with yellow water, it looks 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:32.959 like p yep, your car is totally covered in it. 0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:36.600 You're covered in it. It's just everywhere everywhere. Yeah, but 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:38.880 now we're about to tell everybody we're basically going to 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:42.880 turn everybody into a palenologist. Yeah, to an extent, should 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:45.679 be a big fan after this an amateur palenologists. I 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:48.320 think about a third of all the plants and vegetables 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:52.040 and fruits and vegetables we eat, are you know here 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:55.760 thanks to pollen. So if you like eating food, yeah, 0:01:55.960 --> 0:01:58.560 it doesn't come in a box, thank you pollen. Is 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:01.360 it just a third that pollinate or a third that 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:07.240 are just angiosperms or gymna sperms? That wow, what's up 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:11.360 with the other two thirds? Well, you know, bananas, they're 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:15.280 clones of one another. There's like that, there's the one. 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:18.720 There's like I think a thousand varieties of bananas, And 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:21.120 thanks by the way, to damn interesting for this information. 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:24.880 But there's like a thousand varieties or species of bananas, 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:27.600 but each one, like if you eat like a type 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:30.200 of just one of those species of bananas, you're eating 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:33.200 an exact clone of every other banana in that species, 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:37.680 because many thousands of years ago, humans just stumbled upon 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:42.560 the banana, which is the hybrid of two basically inedible 0:02:42.760 --> 0:02:46.280 fruits that came together to form the delicious banana, but 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:49.360 made them sterile. All banana plants are sterile, and the 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:52.120 only way that they're allowed to propagate is by human hand. 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:56.000 They're delicious. I did a Don't be dumb about that? Yeah, 0:02:56.200 --> 0:02:58.400 well you just did it again. Yeah, you can check 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:00.600 out Don't be dumbs on our website Stuff you should 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:04.679 know dot com. Wow, all right, anyway, pollen, Yes, it's 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:06.520 been around for a while. Um. I know. In our 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:09.440 b podcast we talked about how bees and and pauling 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:13.040 kind of emerged side by side a hundred million years ago, 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:17.920 but Paullen actually goes further back than that. In this article, 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:20.720 it says about three five million years ago is when 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:26.160 the plants started getting clever and spreading their seed literally 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:29.919 using pollen different techniques, and I think the um the 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:34.360 gymnast sperms were first, I believe so. Uh yeah. And 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:36.680 the author of the article here points out that the 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:41.280 reason why it evolved was so plants didn't have to 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:44.520 be dumb and rely on water to carry their junk 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:48.360 to fertilize other junk. You know, they're like, how about 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:51.840 wind or how about that bat a beetle? Yeah, or 0:03:51.880 --> 0:03:55.920 how about that bird pooping it out? That's right? Yeah? Um? 0:03:56.040 --> 0:04:00.840 And like I said, I think Paullen Green's plants spread 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:06.480 their seed. Literally, plant pollen is what amounts to plant sperm. Yeah, 0:04:06.560 --> 0:04:09.520 It's like I always go to the kids science pages 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:13.120 to research. First off, I mean they're good, they're they're colorful. 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:16.560 Uh yeah. If we want to pollination very simply, you know, 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:20.159 people reproduce. Animals reproduce, they need male and female parts. 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:23.240 Plants and flowers are no different. They need male parts 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:27.000 to connect with the female parts to make an egg. 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:30.720 And in this case, pollination is how it's done. Basically, 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:33.160 how that sperm, the pollen reaches that egg, which is 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:37.600 the ovule, right, and once they get together, magic happens. 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:39.839 That's right. But let's talk about the way it looks 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:42.560 first of all. Yeah, there's like there's a lot of 0:04:42.600 --> 0:04:47.520 different looks to pollen depending on the plant um and 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:51.279 all of these variations. It can be like a cone 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:53.680 literally a pine cone. Yeah, it looks at you know, 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:56.440 just look up microscope pollen on Google Images and you'll 0:04:56.440 --> 0:05:00.320 see all sorts of weird colorful shapes and sizes. Some 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:05.520 look like blowfish. Yeah, others look like spot nick really yeah, 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:11.279 I didn't see this spot Some have ribbed edges for 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:15.640 and all of these adaptations are or mutations, I guess 0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:20.159 they became adaptations allow that pollen to kind of better 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:22.000 ensure that it's going to be carried to where it 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:24.600 needs to go. Yeah, it has a purpose. It's not 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:26.560 just like, hey, this one would look neat if it 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:31.440 looks like a starfish in the end. Some have wings 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:34.800 kind of what amount of basically wings because they're carried 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:38.520 on the wind. Oh yeah, yeah, like dandelion pollen, it's 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:42.640 carried on the wind. True. Well, dandelion's self polling night too. 0:05:42.680 --> 0:05:45.520 We'll get to that though. Yeah. They're slippery little guys. 0:05:45.839 --> 0:05:50.080 They are. They're also high and phytonutrients as well. Yeah, 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:57.040 dandelion greens are O the stems, No, the leaves, oh, 0:05:57.080 --> 0:05:59.480 the little leaves, the yellow part. So here here's the 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:01.840 rule of thumb. There's a New York Times article that 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:05.000 came out very recently about phyto nutrients and how we 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:08.240 basically bred them out of our food, and um, the 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:12.080 rule of thumb is the the bit, the bitterer or 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:16.720 more bitter the plant, the higher it is in phytonutrients. 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:20.279 Phyto nutrients have kind of a bitterest, stringent taste, and 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:22.520 we tend to not really like that, so we stopped 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:26.120 eating those things over time, replace them with sweet things 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:29.000 that aren't necessarily good for us, like you know, potatoes 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:32.120 and other starches. Ye, well, bitter things can also kill you, 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:36.200 that's probably why. Maybe, So that's that's a pretty good point. 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:39.760 But bitter stuff that you know won't kill you. Dandelion 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:42.360 leaves go out and needs some right now. But back 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:44.880 in the day, I bet people are like that tastes 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:47.279 bad and it killed tuk tuk, So let's just not 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:52.800 eat it right exactly? Alright, So should we talk about pollination? 0:06:53.520 --> 0:06:55.600 Talked a little bit about pollen. Yeah, now we need 0:06:55.680 --> 0:06:58.280 to talk about how plants make little baby plants, right, 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:01.480 and it's it's pretty simple, like I said, the male 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:05.279 part and have you. Uh, it really helps to follow 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:08.520 along if you go to a handied andy little visual 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:12.320 aid I found, because they really break down the male 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:15.400 parts and the female parts. The female is the has 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:18.120 the pistol and that's p I S T I L. 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:22.200 And within that you have the ovary, which are you know, 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:24.880 sits down low in the plant, and the style which 0:07:24.880 --> 0:07:30.840 is a long ah thin h appendage. I guess that 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:33.440 contains pollen tubes. And then at the top you have 0:07:33.480 --> 0:07:35.800 your stigma, which is gonna catch the pollen. Yeah, and 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:38.680 that's the female part, right, that's the lady. Don't be 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:42.240 confused because it is phallic in nature. Yeah, true, but 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:44.480 it's still the female part. And the male has the 0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:46.440 filament which is a long stem, and then the anther 0:07:46.720 --> 0:07:50.760 at the top which holds all the pollen. And that's 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:53.240 pretty much the long and short of the parts. And 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:56.360 is that just angiosperms that you're describing or is that 0:07:56.480 --> 0:08:00.760 all all? I think these are just the and a sperms. Well, 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:03.720 we should say quite explicitly that there's basically two ways 0:08:03.760 --> 0:08:07.960 that plants can pollinate. There's gymnasperms and angiosperms, And the 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:12.280 big difference between the two is that gymnasperms literally that 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:16.360 means naked seed, which, by the way, gymnasium is means 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:19.640 place to be naked canasium in German. Did you know that? 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:24.880 So gymnasperms naked seed. There's nothing protecting the seed once 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:27.800 it's once it's produced, and a seed is just a germ, 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:32.480 a fertilized ovum or ovule, right um, Angia sperms produce 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:35.640 something to protect that seed, whether it's a shell like 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:39.880 a nut or fruit like an apple with the seeds inside, 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:44.600 because an apple is just a an enlarged ovule ovary 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:49.000 and the seeds are the fertilized though. Well, you can 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:53.480 also pollinate, across pollinate or self pollinate, right, those are 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:56.880 the other two differences. So you're saying, what what dandelions 0:08:56.920 --> 0:09:00.240 self pollinate? Well, they can do both, um, but do 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:03.160 have a little a cool little feature. They basically grow up. 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:05.800 You know, this is when there's still the little yellow flower. 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:09.839 They have these little florets that grow up. If you look, well, 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:11.760 you probably can't see if you look really really close, though, 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:15.680 these little florets that grow up and as it grows 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:19.680 it carries uh, the pollen on its little stem and 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:22.040 then eventually gets to a point where it doesn't start 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:25.400 grow growing up anymore, and it splits and then starts 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:30.640 curling back on itself to uh, you know, no way. 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:34.280 It picks up its own pollen from its own style, 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:37.440 and it's self pollination. It's not gross or like perverted. 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:41.880 There's a there's a lot of them. There's a lot 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:45.319 of plants out there though, that have mechanisms to prevent 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:48.360 them from self pollinating. It couldn't can't be good or bad. 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:50.360 That's what I couldn't figure out. Well, the plants somewhere 0:09:50.360 --> 0:09:52.800 along the way figured out like, hey, the wider the 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:55.640 gene pool, the better off we are, because the more 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:59.680 room there is for adaptation mutations and than adaptations. Right. Yeah, 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:03.800 But in here the author said ideally it cross pollinates. 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:06.040 But I don't think that's the case always. Well, it's 0:10:06.080 --> 0:10:08.400 the ideal, it's just some doing some don't write. I mean, 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:11.120 if you look at it, like from just an animalistic 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:17.520 or an organism viewpoint, right like with us, if you 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:20.000 just get a bunch of Mennonites together and they just 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:23.000 reproduce with one another, there's going to be defects that 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:26.640 just are propagated throughout this this little gene pool. But 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:29.920 if the Mennonites spread out into the you know, larger 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:33.800 country as a whole, those defects are going to you know, 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:37.880 I guess we kind of watered down by the size 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:39.319 of the gene pool. I think it's the same thing 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:43.040 with self pollinating and cross pollinating. Yeah, because it's interesting 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:46.360 because things like peanuts or self pollinators and that's why 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:51.400 they thrive. But corn has a mechanism to not allow 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:56.360 itself to self pollinate. Like there. I think the sperm 0:10:56.480 --> 0:11:00.160 is ready at a different time than the ovule is 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:02.760 ready to accept it, So it's it's a timing thing. 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:05.320 The thing is, peanuts would probably be able to talk 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:07.960 if they didn't self pollinate, and they sound like Jimmy 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:12.880 carter um. So there's a lot of mechanisms that plants 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:17.199 have to prevent themselves from self pollinating. Um some. Some 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:21.360 might have either just male plants and just female plants. 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:26.840 UM some maybe uh where the male part if the 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:31.600 plant has both male and female flowers, for example, yes, 0:11:32.120 --> 0:11:35.800 they they the the male flower might come out before 0:11:35.880 --> 0:11:39.320 the female flower on the same plant, so that they're not. 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:42.000 The timing is off a little bit. Um, and then 0:11:42.000 --> 0:11:45.240 there's some they're just like they'll they'll signal a biochemical marker. 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:48.600 If pollen from the same plant gets near the ovule, 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:53.320 it'll just basically turn barren. So it just is incapable 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:56.160 of fertilizing itself, or like corn where the timing is 0:11:56.200 --> 0:11:59.520 thrown off. So they rely on cross pollination, right, which 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:02.240 is pretty cool. So let's let's get explicit again here 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:07.560 gymnaspers naked seed. How does this happen? Like it? We'll 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:12.080 use the example of a pine, a lob lolly pine. 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:15.480 It's fun to say, um, but it's a conifer. Conifers 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:19.800 are ancient. I believe they were the first pollinating plant. Yeah, 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:22.920 I think so. Nice. So let's talk about it. Well, 0:12:23.000 --> 0:12:25.400 the pine cones, they're they're little male pine cones, a 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:28.240 little female pine cones. Might not realize that you've got 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:31.120 quite a show going on in your backyard at certain 0:12:31.120 --> 0:12:34.400 times of the year. Um. And basically, if once you 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:36.480 get the two together, you get a male pine cone 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:42.280 and a a female pine cone together, the male pine cone fertilized, well, 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:46.280 the pollen comes in contact with an ovule and the 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:48.240 pollen starts to go to town. It absorbs a bunch 0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:50.360 of water. Well, the female pine cones a little sticky too. 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:52.880 That helps, by the way, it does, helps collect the pollen. 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:56.840 Right um, So the female or the the pollen, the male, 0:12:57.000 --> 0:13:00.840 the male part of the pine cone germinates and it 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:04.520 starts growing. It's called a pollen tube, which basically allows 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:09.040 this pollen to directly fertilize the ovule. Once that happens, 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:12.120 the ovule basically becomes a seed, and the seed is 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:16.520 released from the pine cone. They go everywhere and then 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:20.400 they're eaten by birds and pooped out elsewhere, carried along 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:24.520 in the there trampled by a rhinoceros who knows which 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:27.120 just got loose from the zoo. But then that seed 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:29.839 is carried along, but it's not protected by anything. It's 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:33.960 just a seed and hence a naked seed. Hence gymnasperms, 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:39.959 So angiosperms, they have kind of like a similar process, 0:13:40.000 --> 0:13:43.000 whereas there's a pollen tube that's grown and the male 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:45.200 pollen has to come in contact with the female pollen 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:47.400 and all that. And we're talking about flowers in most 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:49.920 cases here with andrew sperms, they're the only ones that 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:52.960 flower and produce fruit. So when you think about your 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:56.600 garden with the honey bee and all, that's right. So 0:13:56.800 --> 0:14:01.240 that's a non naked seed and that's the that's where 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:03.520 the fruit comes in or the shell comes and there's 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:07.839 Andrew's firms have developed a mechanism to protect the seed 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:11.680 to better ensure survival and if you think about it, 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:16.800 to entice the things that transport these seeds to go 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:20.080 ahead and do their thing. Yeah, there's like every flower 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:24.320 has some sort of cool shape or scent or color 0:14:24.720 --> 0:14:29.480 or something that matches with some little insect or bird 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:32.840 or bat that's gonna be enticed. Like the bumblebee in 0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:35.040 the fox glove, they go hand in hand because it 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:38.120 fits up. They're just perfect. And it has a little 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:41.360 colorful landing strip on the bottom pedal to guide the 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:46.200 bumblebee in and it's just like nature's it's just like harmonious. 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:50.560 There's that one orchid that I believe Darwin predicted the 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:53.520 existence of a type of hummingbird that had a very 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:56.760 long curled beak right that it co evolves with it, 0:14:56.800 --> 0:15:01.120 and he was absolutely correct. Members in that movie ad Yeah, 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:03.840 that's a great movie. Um, and then uh, you can 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:06.960 learn a lot from that movie. Yeah, yeah, anything that 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:12.760 what's his name? Charlie Kaufman writes, well, researched um. The 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:15.840 fruit is another thing too. Animals love to eat fruit. 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:19.440 The fruit is basically once the fruit piece of fruit 0:15:19.520 --> 0:15:22.120 drops to the ground, that means those seeds are ready 0:15:22.160 --> 0:15:25.080 to go. They're ready to become seedlings. But first they 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:26.960 need a fox to eat the apple, carry it in 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:31.440 its stomach over you know, several meters or miles or whatever, 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:35.360 and then poop it out. And then you have seeds 0:15:35.560 --> 0:15:39.320 that are basically just planted. That's amazing. They take purchase 0:15:39.840 --> 0:15:44.520 and a new tree begins where his seed her insides 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:47.120 where a rocky place where seed you can find nor purchase. 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:51.240 So pollen grains um are actually created. I guess we 0:15:51.240 --> 0:15:55.320 should step back a second and talk about myosis. That's 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:58.280 the cells are dividing and growing. Eventually you get a 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:01.240 little pollen. Uh, it looks like a little dust spec 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:04.560 to our eyeball, but it's contains the sperm. Is not 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:09.800 actually the sperm. It contains the sperm therein and uh, 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:12.240 the pollen is in pollen sacks at the end of 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:14.680 the stamen, which we talked about and that little two 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:20.400 lobed ant uh almost at antler antherer and then eventually 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:24.160 it'll find its way to the stigma and travel down 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:27.560 to the ovary. And and in the case of angiosperms, 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:30.320 there are two sperm that are used. I don't think 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:33.160 we said in the case of gymnosperms, it's only one 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:35.160 of the sperm is used, right, Yeah, in a in 0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:37.520 a pollen sact, there's two sperm, but you just need 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:40.880 one for the gymnasperm for the anti sperm unit to yeah, 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:43.240 because one is actually fertilizing the egg and the other 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:48.440 is developing into endo sperm together alongside and what will 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:51.480 eventually be the seed. And if you think that sounds gross, 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:55.520 like the gymnos sperm, I'm sorry. The endosperm is like 0:16:55.560 --> 0:16:59.000 a protein basically to keep it all alive. Yeah, that 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:03.320 keeps the seedling happy, healthy. So when you're eating corn, 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:05.800 you're actually eating the indo sperm. Each corn kernel is 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:10.160 actually you know, it's like that starchy indo sperm which 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:14.640 the seed loves to eat itself. And that's true. Um, 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:19.080 So we talked about bees, we talked about birds, foxes, 0:17:19.520 --> 0:17:23.119 mentioned poop a couple of times. Yeah, and you were 0:17:23.160 --> 0:17:27.680 saying that, like basically every every flowering plant especially has 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:31.320 some sort of mechanism to attract at least one kind 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:36.159 of um bug or animal that's been proven to help 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:39.480 pollinate transport this pollen. And so I mean, for the 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:41.800 most part, we enjoy them, like you like the scent 0:17:41.920 --> 0:17:47.879 of you know, a good flower, right, sure, but you 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:51.480 might not like the Devil's Tongue, yeah, which is a 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:56.720 sumatran plant that apparently reads so badly smells like a 0:17:56.760 --> 0:18:01.280 decomposing flash. Basically, basically, did you this thing? I've seen 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:04.920 it before. You actually remarkable like two feet and it's 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:08.720 it's like it it basically um flowers or blooms like 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:12.199 once every like ten years or twenty years something like that. Right, 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:15.000 I'm not sure if it's the same one I'm thinking 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:17.280 of things, but it's sink right, And the reason why 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:20.359 it's stinky is because it pollinates with the help of 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:25.040 a type of carrion beetle that's attracted to decomposing flesh. 0:18:25.080 --> 0:18:27.560 So the plant attracts this beetle that likes to eat 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:32.720 decomposing flesh by putting out the smell of decomposing flesh 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:36.040 that's so gross. Yeah, but it's pretty spectacular. It is, 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:38.600 you know, yeah, in the philodendron, something you might have 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:40.560 in your house. It actually does the same thing, but 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:44.520 it doesn't stink always. Um. There's actual chemical reaction that 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:47.119 takes place and heats it up to omit this odor 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:50.600 that the beetle is attracted to, which sounds pretty gross too, 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:53.479 but it all works, and I would google that. Um 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:57.320 the sumatra and devil stung. It's pretty cool looking. Like 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:00.160 the flower itself is two feet It's not like, oh, 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:03.199 what a long stem, it's just as huge flower. It's amazing. 0:19:03.400 --> 0:19:06.679 And then you're also saying, like, was it foxglove that 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:11.280 provided a landing strip for bumblebees? Yeah, So flowers in 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:15.159 general typically have certain types of um like their color 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:18.760 will be based on the kind of creature that um 0:19:18.880 --> 0:19:23.359 that that helps pollinate it, whether it's diurnal meaning it 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:25.879 it's awake during the day or nocturnal meaning it's awake 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:27.919 at night, right, right, I guess that's in case of 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:30.359 like bats and stuff like that. Yeah, and then our 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:33.879 old friend nectar is a big lure and basically nectar 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:38.159 is around right just because it tastes delicious and is 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:43.439 enticing from Yeah, it's basically like a little enticement like 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:46.400 you said, for like a bee or something or a bird. Yeah, 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:51.840 come get it, because it's placed by the stamen that's right, 0:19:51.920 --> 0:19:54.679 or the way that the the anthers are situated, just 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:57.320 the way they're placed in the flower. If it gave 0:19:57.320 --> 0:20:00.119 it an advantage to bump up against that bee, then 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:03.080 it's gonna be successful in the long run and live 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:07.200 out as a species as nice stuff. That is pretty good. So, Chuck, 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:09.600 we've reached a point where, um, I mean, ever since 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:14.680 we started selectively breeding plants, domesticating crops that's pretty right. 0:20:15.000 --> 0:20:18.560 Or hey, I like this banana um or that's hardy 0:20:18.600 --> 0:20:21.840 and it grows in my awful hot area that I 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:26.879 live in. Many reasons to do so, right, Um, you know, 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:31.520 we we wanted to keep plants, We wanted to keep 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:34.080 the bad stuff out, keep the good ones we wanted in. 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:38.159 But it never became more crucial, um until we started 0:20:38.200 --> 0:20:42.119 genetically modifying crops. And now all of a sudden, not 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:45.320 only are the corporations saying like, hey man, you can't 0:20:45.480 --> 0:20:48.520 cross pollinate with our stuff for else that's patent infringement, 0:20:49.320 --> 0:20:52.120 and nearby farmers says I'm not using your seeds as 0:20:52.160 --> 0:20:55.880 the bees. You can't blame me. And the farmers who 0:20:55.880 --> 0:20:58.640 don't want to know most stuff in their crops say, 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:01.200 hey man, you need to keep your crops over there 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:04.520 because I don't want your GMO crowd in here. I 0:21:04.560 --> 0:21:08.480 have an organic farm exactly, and you're just blowing by 0:21:08.520 --> 0:21:11.440 the wind. It's a touchy subject. We should do that. 0:21:11.480 --> 0:21:15.280 It's I agree. The idea of like patenting jeans in 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:19.720 general and they alone like crops is it's really interesting. Um, 0:21:19.760 --> 0:21:23.920 but there's been some pretty clever, simple ways of getting 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:28.280 around this problem. It's posed by pollination of GMO crops 0:21:28.320 --> 0:21:33.400 with non gmo crops. Yeah. Well, distance is obviously one thing. 0:21:34.560 --> 0:21:37.080 Don't put my farm near your farm. But they have 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:38.720 to do all kinds of studies to see how the 0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:42.040 wind reacts and how like how far does that be fly? Yeah, 0:21:42.040 --> 0:21:44.520 and they found in uh, in certain parts of Africa, 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:49.000 these will go about four miles three kilometers that's their 0:21:49.119 --> 0:21:52.480 range for food. That's you know, that's a lot. But 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:54.959 I mean, just using that kind of thinking with all 0:21:55.040 --> 0:21:57.919 process though, like okay, well this you know, there's this 0:21:58.000 --> 0:22:00.240 guy's growing this over here, so I can't of this 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:04.440 here right, That will prevent that kind of pollination though. Yeah. 0:22:04.520 --> 0:22:06.919 Another thing they can do is, uh, sort of like 0:22:06.960 --> 0:22:10.080 with the corn, they can time their crop rotation to 0:22:10.240 --> 0:22:12.760 time out so where they're flowering at different times and 0:22:12.880 --> 0:22:16.640 not interfering with one another. But um, it's a touchy subject. 0:22:16.680 --> 0:22:19.200 Like from what I understand, there's a lot a lot 0:22:19.280 --> 0:22:23.800 more going on then you know, is preferred by like 0:22:23.920 --> 0:22:27.919 the organic farmers of the world, and in't the GMOs. 0:22:29.040 --> 0:22:32.320 They can then say that you're infringing just because they 0:22:32.840 --> 0:22:36.920 cross pollinated to their crop, even though you didn't buy 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:41.040 their seeds or even want their seeds. If a bee 0:22:41.080 --> 0:22:46.199 carries there, there's seeds, there's crops falling over to your crops, 0:22:46.240 --> 0:22:51.000 and you start to develop plants that have the characteristics 0:22:51.000 --> 0:22:54.720 that's patented. According to the corporations, you're infringing on their patent. 0:22:55.560 --> 0:22:57.760 It's very tricky ground, there isn't it. I don't think 0:22:57.800 --> 0:23:00.719 it's triggy ground. If you ask me, you should not 0:23:00.800 --> 0:23:04.000 be allowed to have a patent on any living organism. Yeah, 0:23:04.040 --> 0:23:05.600 you know what I mean, though, that's my opinion. It 0:23:05.640 --> 0:23:10.280 gets tricky, uh in courts and studies and corporations, and 0:23:10.480 --> 0:23:15.480 of course they tend to side on the corporation's side. Typically. 0:23:16.560 --> 0:23:20.199 Let's do that one though soon GM. Yeah all right, Um, 0:23:20.280 --> 0:23:22.560 so let's say, for Paullen, if you're interested in how 0:23:22.640 --> 0:23:25.840 pollen causes allergies, and you should listen to our how 0:23:25.880 --> 0:23:28.159 Allergies Work episode. That was pretty good. Ye I was 0:23:28.160 --> 0:23:32.160 gonna recommend that. Nice work. Um, thanks man. So, uh, 0:23:32.320 --> 0:23:34.280 if you want to learn more about pollen in the meantime, 0:23:34.320 --> 0:23:35.959 you can type that word in the search bar how 0:23:36.000 --> 0:23:38.840 stiff works dot com. Since I said search bar, it's time, 0:23:38.880 --> 0:23:46.879 of course for a message break. And now how about 0:23:46.880 --> 0:23:52.399