I am currently investing in expertise for identification of pollen in honey. I already have some handbooks and internet links for reference and use frequently monofloral honeys and plants as pollen source for documentation. It is, however, difficult to find documentation and descriptions of specific pollen types of some particular regions. For example, special monofloral honeys are produced in e.g. North America (Nyssa, Prosopis), Africa (Julbernardia) and in New Zealand (Discaria, Weinmannia), but descriptions for identification seems not readily available. Where can I find information for regional directed pollen descriptions?
Dear Leo, There are several sources. World Spore and Pollen flora monographs which deals with groups by classification (Scandinavian University Press). This was never completed but contains a lot of information for pollen identification. The latter issues of WPSF appeared in the journal Grana. There are also some good references in Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology e.g. Gosling et al 2013 Tropical West Africa pollen flora. If on the other hand you are interested in pollen profiles from different honeys then the literature is more diffuse. Grana publishes quite a few papers but they may not cover the regions that you are interested in.
Dear Leo,
you may also try some molecular methods, in most cases the references are well covered in nucleotide databases. In the attached paper there is a Figure that shows some alternative ways.
Best, Alex
Article Increased efficiency in identifying mixed pollen samples by ...
Such information on pollen flora and pollen types is not easily available. It would be a big task to collect information from different sources
The palynological database include many SEM and LM photos from various types of the plants, maybe useful for you. The website: https://www.paldat.org/.
Dear Dr. Leo,
As suggested by Alexander Keller, molecular approach will definitely help you lot to identify the pollen species in honey.
If you have any protocol to separate/isolate different pollen species from honey, please share as I am also interested and want to trace floral origins of different honey samples.
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