Haploid wheat plants have been produced by a new method of zygote rescue carried out after distant pollination. Wheat stigmas were pollinated with maize pollen and subsequently the activated egg cells from the elongated ovaries were rescued for in vitro plant development in single cell culture. As the control, 2-week-old embryos were also dissected and then cultured. The efficiency of both techniques was comparable. Wheat was also pollinated with rice, and the further development of rescued zygotes into multicellular structures is reported here for the first time. Because the lack of a normal endosperm hampers embryo development even in the early stages, early zygote rescue (two days after distant pollination) may represent a more efficient way of producing double haploid (DH) plants in cultivars that are recalcitrant in androgenic cultures, after further optimization of in vitro culture of isolated single cells.