Definition of "pollinium" []

• A mass of coherent pollen grains, found in the flowers of orchids and milkweeds. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The pollen spores are usually aggregated into two or four waxy masses ( "pollinia," sing. pollinium), which usually can only be removed by the agency of insects upon which all but a very few orchids are absolutely dependent for the pollination of the flowers."
• "In this latter case we have a pollinium in its most highly developed and perfect condition."
• "A pollinium when highly developed consists of a mass of pollen-grains, affixed to an elastic footstalk or caudicle, and this to a little mass of extremely viscid matter."