Reproduction oddities: pollen

 One strange form of reproduction is pollen. Though everybody knows it and many are allergic to it, its not simply free floating reproduction cells as one might assume. The interesting thing is that pollen can live for days or even weeks away from its originating body. In a way pollen is a separate, smaller plant which produces the reproduction cells once it reaches a viable partner.

Real life examples are only plants, for anything that could move by itself does not need such a complex manner of reproduction. But what if? What if, say, a plant norn would become embedded. A slider, all motion mutated out of his genes. Imagine he would split off a Nano Norn sized Nornling who would, in his stead, traverse the world to find a lady plant Norn to kisspop her. He would probably need to make a lot of the little Nornlings, and most would not make it.

For immovable giants like gaia, this could be a sensible solution. The little pollenlings would be able to traverse the ark, to operate doors and elevators, or at least crawl through crevices. The Jotnar of my latest story operate comparably, reducing the males in a way to oversized pollen to the mostly immobile females.

What use would this manner of reproduction have? Within the creatures context less than in real life. Distances are not generally a problem for the worlds are small. Difficult to traverse terrain is another use. Widening the mating window. Reaching more partners. 

Admittedly, none of these are a problem with base creatures. Though as an experiment pollen could be interesting, the actual effect would likely be very small!

What do you think? Comments and critique is always welcome!