Pollen
Pollen
grains are the male gametes of the flowering world and may be transferred
from one flower to another by wind, rummaging insects, birds and animals.
Resembling little more than a fine powder when in the palm of ones hand,
pollen grains are little gems that vary greatly in size from one plant
species to another.
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The smallest is around 6um (0.006 mm) for the Forget-me-not (Myosotis spp.) whilst the giants, Marrows and Squashes (Cucurbita spp.), measure in at around 200 um (0.200 mm). The examples presented here are both in the region of approximately 25-30 um (0.025 - 0.030 mm) and belong to two members of the Daisy family (Compositae ). Pollen grains from this particular family are nearly always very ornate with a striking surface architecture.
The largest and smallest side-by-side.
The image below
left shows a single pollen grain from the
Forget-me-not (Myosotis sp.) flower magnified 15,350 times. The
image below right is the pollen grain from a Marrow flower (Cucurbita
sp.) magnified a mere 525 times.
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The yellow dot
marked with an arrow is a single
Forget-me-not pollen grain to the same scale as the Marrow grain.
Magnified 6,600 times the above image compares the size of Forget-me-not pollen with Human chromosomes.
All images copyright © Andrew Syred 2000, 2001