Pine & Pea Pollen under the Microscope 🔬
Following my previous vegetable pollen post, today we will be looking at pea and pine pollen. Honestly, I didn’t expect them to look so different to the vegetable pollen. In fact there are many more different looking types of pollen than I expected. It really is truly amazing how something so tiny look the same with the naked eye, yet so different under the microscope.
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2017/07/04/00/18/pea-2469490_1280.jpg)
Image Credit: Pixabay, by ruslanababenko, by CC0 1.0
Let us check out the pea pollen under the microscope. At first glance the shape reminded me of pills. But when you look closer you can see little bumps along the middle of the pill shaped pollen. It seems pretty bizarre.
![SmartSelectGIF_2018-05-06-16-24-35.gif](https://steemitimages.com/DQmXtQge4DDRKV2Nk7SntfhdRNxH64u8YaSKmqTXU17Nucj/SmartSelectGIF_2018-05-06-16-24-35.gif)
Having a closer look and adjusting the iris diaphragm, it appears there are three little bumps per pollen along the middle cross section. Ah dammit, just saw I stuffed up the gif once again lol I was too focused on capturing the details on the pollen.
![SmartSelectGIF_2018-05-06-16-28-12.gif](https://steemitimages.com/0x0/https://steemitimages.com/DQmQwwP5NjmN61ExSKWHPogu3P9ZEcBBpXQvnUjBdT59CRU/SmartSelectGIF_2018-05-06-16-28-12.gif)
Time to check out the pine pollen.
![SmartSelectGIF_2018-05-06-16-28-58.gif](https://steemitimages.com/DQmXHcAGLV22tRH4wqqNPYLfxBMwfr1xovy195yZ1jJ7kYM/SmartSelectGIF_2018-05-06-16-28-58.gif)
This looks very similar to the vegetable pollen we had previously looked at. Except for the two slightly more transparent bubble looking things on each end. At first I thought maybe the pollen was germinating? However this was not true, those bubble like features are actually air sacks to help them travel further. Talk about an advance pollen.
Vesiculate Pollens: Pollens with air sacks to increase bouyancy. The sacks are typically two per grain at the bottom of the grain, but may also be doughnut shaped under the grain.
Vesiculate pollens are found in the Abies (Fir), Picea (Spruce), Pinus (Pine), Podocarpus (Podocarpus), and Tsuga (Hemlock). Source
![SmartSelectGIF_2018-05-06-16-31-05.gif](https://steemitimages.com/0x0/https://steemitimages.com/DQmeBuCBG5MHEA5K2VHKSZfmSm4jyJaDUttLwwxJPbih4pL/SmartSelectGIF_2018-05-06-16-31-05.gif)
Unless cited, all other imagines & gifs belong to @supersoju
References:
Pollen File
I wanted soja under the microscope after her shave.
I demand a close up of her grumpy face.
The pollen is my favorite
Hehehe
lol
Wow, the air sacks on the pine pollen are amazing, nature is clever.
Damn, that pine pollen has airbags! I am seriously considering getting the pine tree cut down before it kills me one spring
hahahaha
Pine pollen was one of the first things I ever saw under my microscope and it holds a special place in my heart. Exactly correct about the air bags.
It's also often (but not always) the case that air dispersed pollen tends to have jagged features than pollen dispersed by insects and such. This also means it's often a less common allergen.
hehehe mine was onion cells and cheek cells lol pine pollen would have been more interesting as a first microscopic view.
Interesting information, thanks for sharing.
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