Pollen is one of the most fascinating things to look at under the microscope.
Are you a teacher who would like to make pollen slides as a classroom activity?
And it is and one of the easiest specimens to collect.
Sunflower Collecting in July
Pollen is fun to work with and study, because it is easy to handle and mount on a slide.
Pollen is also one of the most important things on the planet, because without pollen, there would be no life on earth. Plants need pollen to reproduce, and animals eat other animals who eat plants.
Perhaps there would be life under the sea, but maybe not. Life in the sea depends upon oxygen in the water, and without plants on Earth, there would probably not be enough oxygen in the atmosphere.
That said, let’s look at some pollen!
Sunflower Pollen from Virginia. Photo taken of pollen in chamber slide. Used 25x objective and made a stack of 4 images. Did you know that Sunflower pollen is used to calibrate high quality microscopes? Sunflower pollen is fluorescent, and is very useful in Confocal Microscopy.
Shown here is a photograph of Sunflower pollen in its natural state was taken by illuminating the slide from the top only, with a very thin beam of light from a fiber optic cable. the pollen itself was unmounted, simply sitting in the air, on top of the slide. This is how Sunflower pollen looks to a bee perhaps!
- Red Gerbera Daisy
It would be a shame to throw away those flowers you gave to your wife, your mom, or girlfriend. Make sure you create some nice slides first. The red Gerbera Daisy is a very typical florist’s flower for a nice boquet. A visit to the local flower shop will tell you which flowers have the nicest anthers and offer the most pollen for your slide making. Then you’ll know which bouquet to order next time! We’ll keep that a secret, okay?
Gerbera Daisy Pollen, Magnification about 250x
This photo of Gerbera Daisy pollen was taken in Brightfield using 10 WF eyepiece and 25x Zeiss achromat. This is a combination of 4 photos stacked using Helicon Focus program. The pollen was mounted on a slide using Cytoseal mountant, and illuminated from the bottom using a sky blue filter.
Look at the pollen just falling off this White Tulip!
See all that pollen? Simply tap this white tulip over a slide, and mount it with a coverglass. Here is what white tulip pollen looks like under polarized light (left). An interference filter was used to create a violet background. How would tulip pollen look in ordinary brightfield lighting? See below right.
White Tulip Pollen, Magnified about 250x, crossed polarized lighting
Red Tulip Pollen, magnified about 250x, brightfield lighting
In order to obtain the beautiful colors in cross polarization, you need an interference filter. I use a plastic cover from an old CD case. By rotating it between two polarizing filters, you get a wide variety of multicolor effects. You can see the variety in my crystal photos page. Click this link for more of polarizing effects and colors: Crystal Photos
Alstromeria, more commonly known as the the Lily. There are many types of lillies, and each as a slightly different looking type of pollen. Look at these different lillies.
Alstromeria aurantiaca
Alstromeria Lillies. Happy Birthday, darling.
Pink Alstromeria Flower Pollen, illuminated in brightfield
Alstromeria Pollen, magnified about 280x, here using phase contrast illuminationAlstromeria Pollen, magnified about 250x, here using darkfield illumination
Stargazer Lilly
Have fun, and be sure to leave your comments on this page!
About Mike Shaw
