Most of the pollen plates say polar view and equatorial view. How can we click the photos of pollen in microscopes at different views? I can see the different structures of pollen at different degree of fine adjustments but wondering if there is other clear methods to click photo at polar and equatorial view? Thanks in advance.
When you use pollen slides with a fluid medium like for instance Glycerol you can move the pollen grains into every required view. If the slides are fixed, you have to spend some time to find a pollen grain in the right position. Of course you can conclude even from for instance an equatorial view on features you would see in polar view as for example the length of colpi (respectively the size of the polar area) or the sculpture by careful choice of the focus. A very good guide to morphological terms available as a pdf is the “Glossary of pollen and spore terminology” by Punt et al. (2007) in the Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 143.
To begin with understanding pollen views, you must consult the book - Pollen morphology of angiosperms by G. Erdtman, and essentials of Palynology by P.K.K.Nair.
However in order to understand how different families pollen look under SEM and LM in different views you must consult my book on Bee Botany of Bhimtal in Western Himalayas. There are many images of views as seen under LM in this book for many families. You will certainly be able to recognize the views with this help as the images are exactly taken from camera fitted to microscope.
Still you can call me for further help.
When you use pollen slides with a fluid medium like for instance Glycerol you can move the pollen grains into every required view. If the slides are fixed, you have to spend some time to find a pollen grain in the right position. Of course you can conclude even from for instance an equatorial view on features you would see in polar view as for example the length of colpi (respectively the size of the polar area) or the sculpture by careful choice of the focus. A very good guide to morphological terms available as a pdf is the “Glossary of pollen and spore terminology” by Punt et al. (2007) in the Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 143.
Hi Alwynne,
Thank you very much for posting plenty of resources. Actually, I created pollen library (which is ) mounted in Calberla's fluid from the bee hive and flora in apiary's surrounding from Nepal. So, I am trying to match pollen collected from hive with the pollen from flora around apiary. As all the pollen plates are taken at 400X in light microscope,sometimes, I have difficulties to key out the pollen from the beehive on the basis of reference pollen library. As the pollen plates on different views look different, I am wondering if I need all the pollen from bee flora in both polar and equatorial view so that I can match pollen collected by bees easily.
Thank you so much for all of your information.
Great information! That is really helpful. Alwynne! I will be definitely in touch with my progress in this set of pollen work. Thank you so much.
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