Pollen grain sporoderm and types of dispersal units

Abstract

The pollen of gymnosperms and angiosperms may be dispersed in monads, tetrads, polyads, massulae or compact pollinia. The monads and tetrads may form larger clumps of pollen because filiform pollen is tangled while other kinds of pollen can be glued by means of different devices. Exine and intine modify their structure to adapt to pollen dispersing units, exine in some cases can be absent. An additional layer, a thin callosic wall, can be present in some species beneath the intine; this occurs when pollen grains are slightly dehydrated before dispersal.