Miniature wonder: admiring Asteraceae pollens under microscope

 

Er … a sort of Naomi’s boom for Spring 2023. I’m in for collecting pollens these days. It’s not for culinary purposes or something, but to admire them under microscope. Actually, last fall when I walked Niiharu Citizen Forest with the researchers from Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Natural History, they taught me this fun. The way to collect pollens is simple.

<What you need>

1. Black construction paper, cut into, … er … 3cm*5cm cards, or in a similar size.

The card is small enough to carry to a field, but large enough to work with.

2. Transparent Scotch tape, preferably 2cm or so wide.

Here.
The white sticker on the construction paper is
to write down the name of flower.

<What to do>

1. Put 2-3 cm long scotch tape on a flower, gently push the sticky side on the stamen to collect pollens.
2. Paste the scotch tape with pollens on a card of construction paper. 

3. Enjoy them under microscope!

Flatweed flower with scotch tape.

I pasted the tape with pollens on a construction paper card …

and admire them under a microscope on my desk.

I’m still sorting out my collection ... This week, I’ll show you some of my cards for the flowers of Asteraceae family.

Oriental false hawksbeard

Their pollens look like yellow confetti. 😊

Common sowthistle

Theirs are also like candies, but the spikiness is, it seems to me, sharper than Oriental false hawksbeard.

Jersey Cudweed

Hmmmm. This candy-like pollen looks like a petit potato.

Flatweed

So far, this looks the most appetizing as a candy, don’t you think?

Eastern daisy fleabane

Wow. These fecund-looking pollens are true to their notoriety as super-invasive species!

It’s interesting the pollens from the same family look similar each other. I mean, pollens for Asteraceae family all have spikes … like COVID viruses … Are the spikes do something for their procreation? For contrast, here is from another family, Garryaceae to be exact.

They are pollens for Japanese laurel. I used thick double-sided tape for this photo. Pro for this approach was I don’t have to carry a tape cutter, as long as I prepare the card beforehand with the tape. But the level of transparency is lower with double-sided tape. In addition, the tape was too thick to stabilize microscope over it. So I abandoned this approach.

I’m sorry for these out-of-focus photos from microscope. It’s difficult to stabilize my Android over the microscope … Also, I think I need to find better Scotch tape with more transparency. My trial continues …

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