As I am studying determination of pollen trapping frequencies of Apis mellifera colonies, I have to also ascertain the plant species of pollen source as part of my research proposal. As I have placed pollen traps to collect pollen I witness good amount of pollen of orange colour is getting collected apart from mustard's yellow pollen.Near to my apiary, crops like Mustard (full bloom) and chickpea (yet to undergo flowering). I couldn't figure out from where does this good amount of orange pollen is coming from.
TRAY SOMETHING LIKE THE BELOW ARTICLES.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2480471?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2480717?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?guide=Pollen
Probably some insights here:
http://www.sonomabees.org/honey-bee-basics/
As Simone says there are many flower species that produce orange or purple pollen pellets. However, the honeybee's pollen constancy may help. Usually during a flight the honeybee field worker collects only one species' pollen. A mix species' pollen load is rare. When I studied the avocado bloom competitor species in Israel I collected pollen samples from about 20 blooming species from the apiary surrounding area. While in the field, when I saw honeybees collecting pollen I also collected a sample of their loads. In the lab I studied and photographed these pollens' color and microscopy features. Later it was easy to identify the species of the pellets collected in the traps.
Simone has rightly mentioned. You have to analyse the pollen types through acetolysis technique. The purple pollen might be Mimosa pudica (small tetrad type, psilate) and the orange one may be Delonix regia (trizonocolpate/colporate, reticulate type with thick exine).
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