Respected all,
I am working on the botanical evaluation of the pollen. I wish to know that can palynological study of bee pollen assist in the identification of botanical origin up to the species level? If yes, how I can get to know about the species of plants from pollen grains.
Dear Mamta,
Yes,
it is possible, dut only for specialist of plant palinology.
We can see for exemple,
some good publications of NASAROV Vladimir on RG.
Best wisches,
MTT
Dear Mamta,
Although each pollen micro-morphological feature on its own has limited taxonomic value but the combination of these features has a significant taxonomic importance in the correct identification and delimitation of the problematic taxa. for example monocot taxa have monosulcate pollen but trisulcate pollen was also present. Incase of monosulcate pollen you can also see a significant variation in colpus morphology i.e ornamentation of the colpus, ornamentation of the colpus margin, tip of the colpus and sexine ornamentation which leads to the species delimitation. but i think only the palynologist can do this.
Dear Mamta,
Yes, you can. But it is important to know the vegetation of the study area; make a reference palinotheque. Please, see Chamorro et al 2017
regards
Dear Marmta,
see also
Automatic Recognition of Light-Microscope Pollen ImagesArticle
- 📷G. P. Allen
- 📷R.M. Hodgson
- 📷Stephen Marsland
- [...]
- 📷John Roger Flenley
Dear Mamta,
Up to genus level it is very much possible. However, you have to know the basic pollen morphology mainly the shape, apertural pattern and surface features. For identification, the regional pollen flora, where the bee hive occurs is necessary.
Dear Mamta,
The pollen morphology of every family are different from each other by diagnostic characters and even at genus and species level variation has been studied. So, when you are studying pollen of bee flora, first you have to be knowledgeable about the flora of the area and season in which the flowers are in bloom. After that you can compere the collected pollen samples from bee and pollen studied from the flower of that specific area.
best wishes
Dear Mamata,
In many cases of Melitopalynology, it is YES, because you know the origin of your honey samples. If you have a sound knowledge about the vegetation in which bees are foraging, then it is easy to pin point palynotypes to species level.
Best wishes
It is possible to identify the pollen to species of plant it is coming from using some available catalogues. In fact, pollen and spore identification is commonly based on species except some that can only be identified to generic level. Also some plants like Elaeis guineensis (oil palm) produces three different kinds of pollen. Also some Families like Chenopodiacea and Amaranthacea have indistinguishable pollen and so are usually taken together, thanks to their having similar environmental requirements so there is no problem in their use as environmental indicators. When many species of similar habitats are recovered, the interpretation of the source is easier, not just one species.
Obianuju P. Umeji
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