If you suffer from hay fever, you can now get acquainted with your invisible enemy. These are the Scanning Electron Microscope pictures of pollen grains captured by Martin Oeggerli. Take a close look at pollens from different species of plants.
A grain of willow pollen wedged between flower petals
A grain of Salix caprea pollen has missed its mark. Wedged between flower petals, it will die. While some grains will be flung into the air as springtime breezes swirl the willow leaves, others will stick to the backs of bees and find their way.
A grain of Salix caprea pollen has missed its mark. Wedged between flower petals, it will die. While some grains will be flung into the air as springtime breezes swirl the willow leaves, others will stick to the backs of bees and find their way.
willow pollen grain
Hayfever pumpkin pollen (center) with tiny forget me not to the right
pumpkin pollen
Tiny forget me not pollen
Silk tree pollen
Albizia julibrissin
Persian silk tree grains are also more than 15 times bigger than forget-me-not ones.
Silk tree pollen
Grains of pollen on a geranium stigma
The size of the grains is measured in millionths of a meter, but the romantic journeys of pollen are epic. The dozens of golden grains that have successfully reached a Geranium phaeum flower’s stigma must compete to be among the few that achieve fertilization.
The size of the grains is measured in millionths of a meter, but the romantic journeys of pollen are epic. The dozens of golden grains that have successfully reached a Geranium phaeum flower’s stigma must compete to be among the few that achieve fertilization.
geranium stigma
Mallow flower pollen sticks to bird feathers
Abutilon pictum
Spines on Indian mallow pollen help it cling to bird feathers.
Spines on Indian mallow pollen help it cling to bird feathers.
pollen sticks to bird feathers
Pollen from a snowball plant with a sperm transfer tube
Lodged in the rumpled tissue of a Viburnum tinus stigma, pollen grains from other snowball blossoms (gray) swell with moisture. One (at center) is already growing the tube that delivers sperm to the ovule. Other species’ pollen (yellow and green) has landed amiss; genetic defenses exclude them from the fertilization race.
Lodged in the rumpled tissue of a Viburnum tinus stigma, pollen grains from other snowball blossoms (gray) swell with moisture. One (at center) is already growing the tube that delivers sperm to the ovule. Other species’ pollen (yellow and green) has landed amiss; genetic defenses exclude them from the fertilization race.
sperm transfer tube
Lily pollen
Crinum japonicum
Poison-bulb pollen is surrounded by long, showy petals that attract insect porters. Some variations seem easy to explain. Others remain puzzling, or have yet to be investigated at all.
Crinum japonicum
Poison-bulb pollen is surrounded by long, showy petals that attract insect porters. Some variations seem easy to explain. Others remain puzzling, or have yet to be investigated at all.
Lily pollen
Water lettuce pollen
Pistia stratiotes
The ridges on water cabbage grains are an unusual pollen surface feature, though the plant is common from Egypt to Argentina.
Pistia stratiotes
The ridges on water cabbage grains are an unusual pollen surface feature, though the plant is common from Egypt to Argentina.
Water lettuce pollen
Pine pollen
The pollen of this family coats cars with yellow-green dust—though this particular grain landed on an unhatched insect egg. It floats through the air, sperm carried by two pale “balloons.” Such wind-borne pollen causes misery for allergy sufferers in much of the world, where it falls heavily, as it has for millions of years.
The pollen of this family coats cars with yellow-green dust—though this particular grain landed on an unhatched insect egg. It floats through the air, sperm carried by two pale “balloons.” Such wind-borne pollen causes misery for allergy sufferers in much of the world, where it falls heavily, as it has for millions of years.
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