# Pollen grains



## Moeuk (Feb 4, 2008)

We are now coming to the start of our seasn over here in the UK.
My bees have been out and about, and collecting pollen, which by anyone's standard is a good sign. (I know it could be missleading).

I collect pollen grains and mount them on slides to see the beauty of their srtucture.

Here are two types. Hey, can anyone 'over the pond' name them?
One is easy peasy, the other its a bright yellow bush, the flowers have four leaves.

This grain is about 30 microns in size.




























Enjoy the beauty.

Moeuk


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## D Coates (Jan 6, 2006)

Haven't a clue, but great photos thanks for posting them. Spent a week around Surrey, UK had a great time.


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## Moeuk (Feb 4, 2008)

I think the majority of beekeepers take the brining of pollen back to the hive as, 'Great the queen must be laying, and brood rearing is underway'.

Pollen can vary in the ammount of protein that it gives the bees and as we all know the bees will only collect the 'best' available pollen around.

Try having a close-up look at an indivdual pollen grain, as all types of pollens are in some way different from each other.

The polln grains shown previously are from the top;
Dandelion - Forsythia - Dandelion.

I can post some more pollen grains if you guys over the pond would like to see some?

Enjoy beekeeping.

Regards 
Moeuk.


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## nutso (Jul 8, 2006)

*Natural Wonders of the World - Pollen - Show me MORE*

Lovely! More, more, more please. 

Linda


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## Moeuk (Feb 4, 2008)

With pollen grains I like to know more than just the flower it came from, so I am in the process of making up Power Point slides with information about the pollen grain and then convert the slide to a jpeg image.

Here we go>>>>>>>>>>>





































I will only post a couple at a time.

Enjoy beekeeping.

Moeuk.


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## drobbins (Jun 1, 2005)

beautiful pics
enlighten me
are they pics of pollen grains or the cells within them?
if they are grains the symmetry in interesting
I would have thought a grain is just a clump of male sex cells

[edit] looking a little closer I see sizes of 30-50 micrometers
much smaller than a millimeter
I suspect it's not a "grain"
tell me what I'm looking at

Dave


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## Tim Hall (Sep 14, 2007)

Moeuk,

I've been fascinated by your microscopic images since your first post here, and appreciate you sharing them with us. I'm glad I came across this thread because I'm curious about melissopalynolgy myself, but I can't seem to find any good resources about it. Could you tell us what kind of equipment a beginner (on a budget) might need, and where you can learn what different pollen grains look like?


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## Moeuk (Feb 4, 2008)

OK members,
This may take some reading.

Dave,
The pictures are of individual pollen grains that have been 'de-waxed' and stained to show the exine (the outer layer) with all its particular spores and furrows. Each plant that produces pollen will produce millions of pollen grains.
What we see on the bee's rear legs is a mass of individual pollen grains stuck together with saliva or some sticky liquid.
All the pollen grains from one type of flower will be the same shape size and have the same protein contents for the bee's.
Grains of pollen will vary in size shape, apertures etc, and I will leave the genetic make-up till later. 

The sizes vary from about 6 microns (um) Forget me not, to 150 microns (um) Yellow crocus. I think there are one thousand microns in one millimetre.

Tim,
Firstly you will need a compound microscope which should give good definition at a magnification of X400.You will need slides, and a lot more stains etc.
I only know of one good publication that is from the USA and that is;
POLLEN & SPORES by Rolan O. Kapp's. AASP Foundation. ISBN 931871-05-0
I have a copy and it tells you all you need to know about the structure od different pollen grains.


Wishing you both the very best for the future,

Moeuk

ps nearly forgot; Wikipedia has a good guide to pollen and many other interesting 'links' regading pollen etc.



.


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## drobbins (Jun 1, 2005)

Moe

you're educating me
I guess I knew this but didn't think before I posted
the pollen grains we see on our bees are clumps of real pollen grains
your pics are of individual grains
are these individual grains actually individual cells (what you post pictures of)?
I'm learning

Dave


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## Moeuk (Feb 4, 2008)

Hi Dave

I hope you don't mind but to go through the whole process of fertilisation of plants would take me forever.

So here's a couple of good sites to help understand plant pollination and fertilisation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stamen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollen_tube

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower

Enjoy beekeeping

Moeuk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertilisation


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## nutso (Jul 8, 2006)

*Pollen natural sculpture*

Hello there,

Since it seems that there is a handful of us that are interested in this topic, I thought I'd share what I've been up to. I've been reading about pollen grains for the past few years in an attempt to educate myself about the primary sources of pollen in my honey. My reference book I've been reading is Pollen Grains - Their structure, identification and significance in science and medicine by R.P. Wodehouse, Ph.D. Hafner Publishing Co., New York, 1959. This old book has detailed descriptions of the various pollen sources and line drawings of different pollen grains. The descriptions are good though the likelihood of photos of pollen grains in 1959 probably wasn't likely. A lot of territory is covered in this book.

I noticed Bee Culture and some of the other bee product vendors are also selling what looks like a coffee table type book entitled Pollen. I don't know who the author is but you can take a look at it on Amazon - I've looked at preview pages on Amazon - the images are large, super enlarged, color, and beautiful. It's a bit pricey - around $60.00 so I'm thinking that I'll pick one up and treat myself for my birthday or Christmas.

Finally, you might want to check out these web sites for images of pollen grains that are available for reference: 

http://remf.dartmouth.edu/images/botanicalPollenStereoColor/index.html

http://pollen.usda.gov/Reference_Collection/Jones_Collection.htm

http://www.botany.org/plantimages/pollen.php

You can google pollen images and see that there are more images out there.

Pretty interesting stuff! I'm nowhere near where you are Moe in examining, dying, and photographing the grains. I've collected samples of my local pollens for study, I've got a microscope, but I don't have time right now to set it all up and start studying the pollen. I expect I'll get there in the winter when things are less hectic.

I'm really glad to know that other beekeeper members of this group who have an interest in this topic. I thought I was the only one since every topic under the sun seems to have been covered many times except this one.

Linda


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## Moeuk (Feb 4, 2008)

Hi Linda,

Just read your post. Wow!!!! been reading R P Wodehouse, how ever did you plough through that?

It might be of interest but I have a copy of *Pollen & Spores by Ronald O. Kapp* which I find very good.

There are a number of sites on the web that I will look at and get back to you with ones that will help discover the structur and shape of pollen grains. I find them really astounding.

Have you started making slides of pollen grains yet?
If you need any help just shout and Ill help all I can.

Moeuk


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## nutso (Jul 8, 2006)

*Thanks for the offer*

Hello,

Haven't gotten to the slide creation process yet. I do have my pollen sources collected in different containers and have what I think is all the necessary equipment but am sorely lacking the time to do anything with it yet.

I'll give you a yell when I'm ready to get started. There used to be a pollen database on the internet that I would drop in to periodically and examine the saved pollen grains - I think it was supported by someone in Hungary but now I can't find it. I do know that there are a lot more sites on the internet that show pollen grains than when I started being interested in this topic a few years ago.

I'm only sorry that I have so little time to pursue this fascinating splinter of science right now. Thanks also for the recommendation on the book - I'll check it out. Wodehouse is pretty terse but also has a lot of detail. It's not a party plowing through it.

Linda


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