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Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Sat Jun 29, 2019 5:24 pm
by Roldorf
From our garden. Still practicing have patience.

Image

Just a try out.

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Sat Jun 29, 2019 8:41 pm
by iconoclastica
Well done!

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Sat Jun 29, 2019 10:26 pm
by mrsonchus
Must agree, a goos start I'd say, nicely focused to about the 'equatorial' image.
Pollen is so much more interesting, and difficult to image taxonomically, than folk think!

:)

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Sat Jul 06, 2019 3:56 pm
by Roldorf
A website for identifying pollen have you ever used it?

https://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?guide=Pollen

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Sat Jul 06, 2019 4:41 pm
by mrsonchus
Roldorf wrote:A website for identifying pollen have you ever used it?

https://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?guide=Pollen
No, but it looks very handy indeed, thanks for the link. I'll have a good look at it tonight.

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2019 1:09 pm
by Roldorf
What is the greatest number of different pollen grains found in a sample from one flower?

Up to now I have found 3 and that was in a Nasturtium flower.

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2019 1:53 pm
by mrsonchus
A good question Roldorf - but I personally have no idea!
An interesting activity though, I may have a rummage through a few blooms too if I get the time this weekend.

Any more pollen images to share would be very interesting my friend - I started my microscopy back in 2015 with pollen....

Hi, yes, thanks for the idea for MICAM - it's really very useful for measurement indeed. I've calibrated a set of 4x, 10x, 40x and 100x objectives for my BX40 - just need to add the new 60x now. It has the very useful ability to use a right-click context menu on an image to 'send to MICAM' - which opens the image in MICAM ready for use! Also, Canon's excellent EOS ethering utility program has the ability to specify a 'companion program' to launch with itself - MICAM could be specified there too.....

Here's a stomate from an epidermal-peel, measured with MICAM,
with perhaps gratuitous addition of an objective label and scale-bar :oops:
ws_measured stomate.jpg
ws_measured stomate.jpg (45.8 KiB) Viewed 25369 times
A really handy program - ToupView performs measurements, but with non-native images (i.e. non ToupCam USB camera) the text-sizes are always tiny, although the measurements are correct.

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2019 2:02 pm
by Roldorf
Yes if I could donate (to Micam) with anything other than PayPal, I would have done it, a very nice piece of software.

Pollen from Nasturtium but not Nasturtium:

Image

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2019 2:09 pm
by mrsonchus
Nice image! Very large for pollen-grain.
It looks a lot like Sunflower - but also many other Compositae - Daisy-family maybe.
Very nice and interesting image - more! :D :D

Just checked - Sunflower pollen is only about 31µ across - are you sure the scale is correct?

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2019 2:10 pm
by Roldorf
They must come off the bees and insects when they visit to get nectar. If I knew what they are I could trace where they have visited.
There is another but I haven't as yet got images from it, will have a go later tonight. I tried to find the pollen in the pollen identification guide it only gave me one answer :lol: but I am hopeless with plants so I don't know if there are any in the area or not. (In the middle of a city anyway). I did find Nasturtium pollen though thank goodness.

Edit: Stacked with Photoshop and image blinged up in Micam (I really like it). I tried with Picolay but the result was not good.

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2019 2:12 pm
by Roldorf
Interesting, there are other flowers in the planter, one which looks very much as though it belongs to the daisy family. I will swab it and have a look. Then I will ask my wife what it's called. :)

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2019 2:16 pm
by mrsonchus
Very interesting thread Roldorf, thanks for posting.

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2019 2:18 pm
by Roldorf
Hmmm will check setup again with micrometer slide just to be sure.

Seems to be OK.

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2019 3:00 pm
by MichaelG.
This might be useful:
http://www-saps.plantsci.cam.ac.uk/pollen/index2.htm

Pollens ordered by size, with linked images

MichaelG.
.
Edit: and, as a slight digression, this is lovely:
http://www.jogolesworthy.com/pollen-scu ... rains.html

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2019 3:02 pm
by Roldorf
Thanks will have a scan.

Edit: I think looking at that website it might be Hibiscus, or more likely a Chrysanthemum.

2nd Edit: Wow that second link is quite spectacular, makes me want to look at many more pollen specimens.

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Sat Jul 20, 2019 5:53 pm
by Roldorf
Used Photoshop to stack and add image of flower to pollen image.
Scale, measurements and other text generated with Micam software.
Identification of flower with Plantnet app on mobile phone. Take a photo of the plant and the app offers a number of images to identify it (with my photo it was three , all the same family)




Image

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Sat Jul 20, 2019 6:40 pm
by mrsonchus
Lovely plant, but the pollen size is vastly different at about 25 rather than the 1st image measured at 129 microns..

Very nice stack though, regardless of measurement!

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Sat Jul 20, 2019 7:45 pm
by Roldorf
Hi. Yes a totally different flower even though they are in the same planter. This one was taken direct from the flower today, and there were many of them so I knew that they weren't stray pollen grains there are one or two strays on the slide that are much bigger but I could discount them.

Edit: By the way plantnet app is totally free and no adds, well worth it if your interest is in plants. You can take your pictures on the fly and later check them on the database when you have an internet connection, no need to use your phone data allowance. Identification can be by leaf, flower, fruit, bark, habitat or other. Not quite sure what other is as I haven't tried that yet.

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Sat Jul 20, 2019 7:55 pm
by mrsonchus
Aha! I'm with you now Roldorf! :D :D

Interesting to see the varieties in the planter vie their pollen - one of the most intriguing parts of a plant I think.

Keep 'em coming they're really good to see!

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Sun Jul 21, 2019 9:56 am
by Roldorf
Interesting short video on pollen:-

https://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_dror ... anguage=en

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 10:42 am
by Roldorf
A walk in the forest yesterday:-

Image

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 10:47 am
by mrsonchus
Very nice Alan, I really like also the insert of the flower - I may-well use this nice idea myself my friend!
Can you tell me the settings you use for your overlays with measuremens etc in Micam? Mine are very clunky and thick-looking.
I'm finding the program so handy, particularly the ability to 'right-click' then 'send' an image to Micam, where it opens-up ready to be labelled/measured!

Really nice clean image.

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 11:43 am
by Roldorf
Hi mrsonchus

Under Preferences
Screenshot (2).jpg
Screenshot (2).jpg (179.98 KiB) Viewed 25194 times
The rest is :
Screenshot (4).jpg
Screenshot (4).jpg (125.82 KiB) Viewed 25194 times
Images are placed together with Photoshop by loading all the images, then the ones you want to combine with the main image you need to reduce to about (for me) 250 wide. It all depends on how much space you have around your main image. Then select All (CTRL A) and copy with (CTRL C) switch to your main image and (CTRL V) to paste into the main image. You can then drag it about and position it where you like. When happy save as jpeg file and post. :D :D :D

Hope that helps
Alan

Edit: by the way if you don't have Photoshop you can use Gimp it's freeware and does the same thing as Photoshop

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 2:28 pm
by Roldorf
Next also one from yesterday two more to go.

Image

Is that a pollen tube? It's a bit small to see the details but under high mag it looks like a zipper.

Alan

Edit: apparently it is edible and you can use it in salads, soups, stews, and boiled as a pot herb
Was widely used in Germany as a cure for Quinsey or (die Bräune) in German, from which it derives it's German name of Brunella.

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 2:31 pm
by mrsonchus
Aha! It's a xylem vessel - a water-conducting 'pipe' with a lignin spiral which is it's secondary cell-wall, to reinforce it....

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 3:12 pm
by Roldorf
Many thanks John now I know. Will try to get the next two images up tonight however one of them i just got the flower (its very small) so I don't know if I will have any pollen left on it after so long. Must have a go at making some semi-permanent mounts with nail polish.

Alan

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 3:34 pm
by mrsonchus
I took some images and tried to stack them this morning, of Hemerocallis.fulva 'Day-Lily' pollen grains to show their outer shell (exine) ornamentation, a very useful feature for identification of closely related species. Results not too bad, see below,

Here's a grain imaged just on a slide, dry, no mount of any kind.
40x UIS2 Objective, lack of resolution on arms of network over grain, but their patterning is clear to see....
Image

This is with a fresh (dry) grain mounted in immersion-oil with coverslip.
60x UPlanApo objective, better detail of the ornamentation of the exine....
Image

Another large grain!

(I hope it's O.K. to put these images into your thread?)

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 3:46 pm
by Roldorf
Of Course it's OK, the more the merrier. Very nice images the stacks look great, I can see I have a long way to go. Nice tip with the oil I will have to try it.

Edit: I hope the tips on Micam worked.

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 5:30 pm
by mrsonchus
They did indeed my friend - I had a proper look through the settings to see how they relate to each other, and used your settings with success, nice tip!

I thought I'd try the oil for it's optical properties and becaues it makes a very good thin layer between slide & coverslip - a bonus is that left overnight the mount will be totally bubble-free, including within the pollen-grains themselves....

I think I'll have a look for some more pollen - look what you've gone and done to me! :D :D

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Tue Jul 23, 2019 4:02 pm
by Roldorf
Water Mint:-

Image

No Stack