Corn Flowers and Pollination

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A portion of the tassel, the male flower of corn:  Each stamen is attatched by a slender filament	The stamens produce the pollen, which for corn is very light and easily becomes airbourn. You can faintly see the pollen dropping from this tassel that is being shaken.
The female flower is the incipient ear, with silk extending beyond the husks. It is sticky so as to catch the pollen shed from adjacent plants. Once it turns brown and dry, it is no longer receptive to pollination.	Each strand of silk extends inside to the ovules (incipient seeds) as you can see in this opened flower. It is sort of like a fiber optics cable, in that a grain of pollen, landing on the silk now becomes predetermined as to which kernal it will fertilize.  All flowers have this to some extent, though it is not so obvious on many flowers. This is an important aspect to the understanding of pollination.

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