Pollen tubes navigate the route from stigma to ovule with great accuracy, but the cues that guide them along this route are not known. We reproduced the environment on the stigma of Nicotiana alata by immersing pollen in stigma exudate or oil close to an interface with an aqueous medium. The growth of pollen in this culture system mimicked growth on stigmas: pollen grains hydrated and germinated, and pollen tubes grew toward the aqueous medium. The rate-limiting step in pollen germination was the movement of water through the surrounding exudate or oil. By elimination of other potential guidance cues, we conclude that the directional supply of water probably determined the axis of polarity of pollen tubes and resulted in growth toward the interface. We propose that a gradient of water in exudate is a guidance cue for pollen tubes on the stigma and that the composition of the exudate must be such that it is permeable enough for pollen hydration to occur but not so permeable that the supply of water becomes nondirectional. Pollen tube penetration of the stigma may be the most frequently occurring hydrotropic response of higher plants.Fertilization of the ovules of flowering plants occurs when desiccated pollen grains on the receptive surface of the female (the stigma) hydrate, germinate, and produce a tube that elongates directionally to penetrate the stigma (Knox, 1984;Dickinson and Elleman, 1994; Nasrallah et al., 1994). These events occur in the lipid-rich environment formed by the pollen coat or the stigma exudate, which is essential for successful fertilization (Pandey, 1963; Konar and Linskens, 1966b; Preuss et al., 1993;Goldman et al., 1994; Wolters-Arts et al., 1998). Cells of the "wet" stigmas of solanaceous plants release lipid droplets into the intercellular spaces of the stigma and directly onto its surface. The droplets accumulate and coalesce to form a transition layer of an oil-in-water emulsion between an aqueous phase within the stigma and a lipid phase on the surface (Konar and Linskens, 1966a;Herrero and Dickinson, 1979;Cresti et al., 1986; Kandasamy and Kristen, 1987). Pollen on solanaceous stigmas does not adhere to papillae but remains free within the exudate, where it hydrates despite the negligible amount of water present within the exudate itself (Konar and Linskens, 1966b) and the barrier to water movement that lipids are usually assumed to impose.Following germination the directional growth of pollen tubes (which elongate by tip growth) into the stigma suggests that some external cue establishes their polarity. Light, tactile, electrical, and chemical cues have been suggested as polarizing agents in pollen tubes and other tipgrowing cells (Heslop-Harrison and Heslop-Harrison, 1986; Reger et al., 1992;Cheung et al., 1995; Hü lskamp et al., 1995; Malho and Trewavas, 1996; Kropf, 1997); however, although potential external guidance cues have been identified for pollen tubes, their roles in guidance within the pistil remain unclear (Hepler, 1997; Sommer-Knudsen et al., 1998).By applying...