Pollen
The fine powder made by a flower's anthers, carrying the male cells needed to make seed.
Each pollen grain is tiny and tough, and carries the male cells of the plant. For seed to form, pollen has to travel from an anther to a stigma of the same species. Insect-carried pollen is often sticky and heavy, like the orange dust of a lily. Wind-carried pollen, from grasses, birches and pines, is light and dry, and is the kind that causes most hay fever. Bees also collect pollen as food, packing it into pellets on their hind legs.