varuni P

Observed during DBT Foldscope workshop…


 Dancing Diatom

<div class="jetpack-video-wrapper">
 
 <iframe allowfullscreen="true" class="youtube-player" height="563" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/h-wNVHbH_uk?version=3&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent" style="border:0;" type="text/html" width="1000">
 </iframe>
 
</div>

 Also from same sample, pirouetting mystery-bug-aggregate

<div class="jetpack-video-wrapper">
 
 <iframe allowfullscreen="true" class="youtube-player" height="563" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TqfKA936ZMw?version=3&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent" style="border:0;" type="text/html" width="1000">
 </iframe>
 
</div>

Dancing Diatom @ICGEB, Delhi

Karuvaipillai (
 
 Murraya koenigii
 
 ) is flowering now!


 <a href="http://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=33580">
 <img alt="IMG_20180420_111055096" class="alignnone wp-image-33580 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="33580" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1524222655","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"200","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180420_111055096" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_33577/IMG_20180420_111055096.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 Here is some pollen from the flowers:


 <a href="http://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=33583">
 <img alt="IMG_20180419_201548010" class="alignnone wp-image-33583 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="33583" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1524168948","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"400","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180419_201548010" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_33577/IMG_20180419_201548010.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>
 <a href="http://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=33582">
 <img alt="IMG_20180419_201624139" class="alignnone wp-image-33582 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="33582" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1524168984","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"320","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180419_201624139" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_33577/IMG_20180419_201624139.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>
 <a href="http://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=33581">
 <img alt="IMG_20180419_201739447_BURST000_COVER_TOP" class="alignnone wp-image-33581 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="33581" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1524169059","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"1000","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180419_201739447_BURST000_COVER_TOP" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_33577/IMG_20180419_201739447_BURST000_COVER_TOP.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 Here is the same pollen after a couple of hours in glycerol:


 <a href="http://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=33587">
 <img alt="IMG_20180421_225045513" class="alignnone wp-image-33587 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="33587" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1524351045","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"160","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180421_225045513" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_33577/IMG_20180421_225045513.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 (The black lines in the background are the 1mm grid — would be good to have a more detailed grid to allow for generating a scale bar….)


 
 UPDATE:
 


 I tried to calibrate these images of pollen:


 <a alt="IMG_20180526_130650410.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_33577/IMG_20180526_130650410.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180526_130650410" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-37472 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37472" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180526_130650410" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_33577/IMG_20180526_130650410.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>
 <a alt="IMG_20180526_125944040.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_33577/IMG_20180526_125944040.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180526_125944040" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-37474 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37474" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180526_125944040" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_33577/IMG_20180526_125944040.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>
 <a alt="IMG_20180526_130916190.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_33577/IMG_20180526_130916190.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180526_130916190" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-37473 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37473" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180526_130916190" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_33577/IMG_20180526_130916190.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 It seems like
 
 M. koenigii
 
 pollen are pretty uniform: 32-36 microns in length. Using this, not only can I get more pollen lengths, but also, from the third image, where I can see the colpi of one pollen grain, I can estimate the inner and outer diameters of the pollen to be 7 microns and 11 microns respectively. (For a more detailed discussion see
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=37466">
 this post about measurement
 </a>
 .)


 <a href="https://thewinnower.com/papers/9005-karuvaipillai-pollen" target="_blank">
 This post is open to read and review on The Winnower.
 </a>

Karuvaipillai Pollen

Seethaphazam or Custard apple (
 
 Annona squamosa
 
 ) trees have just started flowering:


 <a href="http://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=34281">
 <img alt="IMG_20180428_103654400" class="alignnone wp-image-34281 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="34281" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1524911814","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"125","shutter_speed":"0.01","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180428_103654400" data-recalc-dims="1" height="497" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_34276/IMG_20180428_103654400.jpg" width="663"/>
 </a>


 Heres the inside of the flower:


 <a href="http://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=34280">
 <img alt="IMG_20180428_104508742_LL" class="alignnone wp-image-34280 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="34280" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1524912308","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"1250","shutter_speed":"0.076923076923077","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180428_104508742_LL" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_34276/IMG_20180428_104508742_LL.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 Heres its stamen:


 <a href="http://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=34279">
 <img alt="IMG_20180428_112554633" class="alignnone wp-image-34279 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="34279" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1524914754","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"500","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180428_112554633" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_34276/IMG_20180428_112554633.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 I think thats dry pollen coming off it.


 After about an hour in glycerol, here’s some pollen dyads:


 <a href="http://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=34277">
 <img alt="IMG_20180428_121149532" class="alignnone wp-image-34277 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="34277" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1524917509","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"125","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180428_121149532" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_34276/IMG_20180428_121149532.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 (One dyad possibly has a pollen tube?)


 Pollen was also seen as tetrads:


 <a href="http://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=34278">
 <img alt="IMG_20180428_114118211" class="alignnone wp-image-34278 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="34278" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1524915678","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"400","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180428_114118211" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_34276/IMG_20180428_114118211.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 <a href="https://thewinnower.com/papers/9006-seethaphazam-pollen" target="_blank">
 This post is open to read and review on The Winnower.
 </a>

Seethaphazam pollen

Found this sad sea urchin washed up on the beach last week:


 <a href="http://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=34314">
 <img alt="IMG_20180422_131002772" class="alignnone wp-image-34314 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="34314" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1524402602","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"100","shutter_speed":"0.0038910505836576","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180422_131002772" data-recalc-dims="1" height="412" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_34313/IMG_20180422_131002772.jpg" width="549"/>
 </a>


 Here is one of its scary looking spikes:


 <a href="http://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=34325">
 <img alt="IMG_20180428_165449414_LL" class="alignnone wp-image-34325 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="34325" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"1600","shutter_speed":"0.076923076923077","title":"","orientation":"1"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180428_165449414_LL" data-recalc-dims="1" height="78" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_34313/IMG_20180428_165449414_LL.jpg" width="84"/>
 </a>


 Was hard to see anything with the usual Foldscope set up. So after digging around a bit on the Microcosmos site, I found this post:

<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="qmXenJZ5lu">
 
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=33534">
 A simple hack for reflection/epi-illumination using the foldscope
 </a>
 
</blockquote>

 <iframe class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="qmXenJZ5lu" frameborder="0" height="338" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" sandbox="allow-scripts" scrolling="no" security="restricted" src="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=33534&amp;embed=true#?secret=qmXenJZ5lu" style="position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);" title="“A simple hack for reflection/epi-illumination using the foldscope” — Microcosmos" width="600">
 </iframe>


 Using a similar set up with an LED and a battery, inserted from one side of the stage:


 <a href="http://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=34316">
 <img alt="IMG_20180428_164846213_LL" class="alignnone wp-image-34316 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="34316" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1524934126","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"2000","shutter_speed":"0.076923076923077","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180428_164846213_LL" data-recalc-dims="1" height="191" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_34313/IMG_20180428_164846213_LL.jpg" width="255"/>
 </a>
 <a href="http://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=34317">
 <img alt="IMG_20180428_164620711_LL" class="alignnone wp-image-34317 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="34317" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1524933980","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"2000","shutter_speed":"0.076923076923077","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180428_164620711_LL" data-recalc-dims="1" height="190" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_34313/IMG_20180428_164620711_LL.jpg" width="253"/>
 </a>


 I got a lovely view of the spike!


 <a href="http://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=34315">
 <img alt="IMG_20180428_162433544_LL" class="alignnone wp-image-34315 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="34315" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1524932673","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"3200","shutter_speed":"0.076923076923077","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180428_162433544_LL" data-recalc-dims="1" height="535" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_34313/IMG_20180428_162433544_LL.jpg" width="401"/>
 </a>


 <a href="https://thewinnower.com/papers/9007-sea-urchin-spike" target="_blank">
 This post is open to read and review on The Winnower.
 </a>

Sea urchin spike

<a alt="www.imsc.res.in" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_35460/www.imsc.res.in">
 The Institute of Mathematical Sciences
 </a>
 , Chennai is hosting ~70 school students as part of an 8 day
 <a href="https://www.imsc.res.in/outreach/SSSW2018/">
 Summer School Students Workshop 2018
 </a>
 .


 This week the students assembled Foldscopes:


 <a href="http://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=35472">
 <img alt="IMG_20180510_094240128" class="alignnone wp-image-35472 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="35472" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1525945360","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180510_094240128" data-recalc-dims="1" height="134" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_35460/IMG_20180510_094240128.jpg" width="179"/>
 </a>
 <a href="http://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=35471">
 <img alt="IMG_20180510_094248659" class="alignnone wp-image-35471 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="35471" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1525945368","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.04","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180510_094248659" data-recalc-dims="1" height="135" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_35460/IMG_20180510_094248659.jpg" width="179"/>
 </a>
 <a href="http://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=35470">
 <img alt="IMG_20180510_094257334" class="alignnone wp-image-35470 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="35470" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1525945377","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180510_094257334" data-recalc-dims="1" height="138" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_35460/IMG_20180510_094257334.jpg" width="184"/>
 </a>
 <a href="http://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=35469">
 <img alt="IMG_20180510_094326430" class="alignnone wp-image-35469 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="35469" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1525945406","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180510_094326430" data-recalc-dims="1" height="391" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_35460/IMG_20180510_094326430.jpg" width="293"/>
 </a>


 We had just about enough time to try out our Foldscopes with various slides!


 Here’s an ant stuck in a slide:


 <a href="http://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=35465">
 <img alt="IMG_20180510_103636039_LL" class="alignnone wp-image-35465 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="35465" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1525948596","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"1000","shutter_speed":"0.05","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180510_103636039_LL" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_35460/IMG_20180510_103636039_LL.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>
 <a href="http://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=35464">
 <img alt="IMG_20180510_103702771_LL" class="alignnone wp-image-35464 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="35464" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1525948622","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"2500","shutter_speed":"0.076923076923077","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180510_103702771_LL" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_35460/IMG_20180510_103702771_LL.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 Here’s some stomata from a leaf:


 <a href="http://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=35466">
 <img alt="IMG_20180510_102853933" class="alignnone wp-image-35466 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="35466" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1525948133","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.04","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180510_102853933" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_35460/IMG_20180510_102853933.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 Here’s a slide of some green stuff (possibly lichen or moss?)


 <a href="http://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=35467">
 <img alt="IMG_20180510_102752659" class="alignnone wp-image-35467 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="35467" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1525948072","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"1000","shutter_speed":"0.04","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180510_102752659" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_35460/IMG_20180510_102752659.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 Here’s what a blade of grass looks like under a Foldscope:


 <a href="http://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=35468">
 <img alt="IMG_20180510_102513144_LL" class="alignnone wp-image-35468 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="35468" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1525947913","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"3200","shutter_speed":"0.076923076923077","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180510_102513144_LL" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_35460/IMG_20180510_102513144_LL.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 Finally, here’s my favorite Foldscope specimen: pollen! Do you know which flower this is from?


 <a href="http://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=35463">
 <img alt="IMG_20180510_103844777_BURST000_COVER_TOP" class="alignnone wp-image-35463 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="35463" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1525948724","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"1000","shutter_speed":"0.076923076923077","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180510_103844777_BURST000_COVER_TOP" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_35460/IMG_20180510_103844777_BURST000_COVER_TOP.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 Stay tuned for our next post from #IMScSSSW2018 on pollen…

Foldscope Session for Summer School Students Workshop @IMScChennai

During our second week of the
 <a href="https://www.imsc.res.in/outreach/SSSW2018/">
 Summer School Students Workshop 2018
 </a>
 at the
 <a alt="www.imsc.res.in" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/www.imsc.res.in">
 The Institute of Mathematical Sciences
 </a>
 , Chennai, we observed the diversity of flowers using the Foldscopes we assembled the week before.


 Here is a lovely bouquet of flowers we collected from around us:


 <a alt="IMG_20180515_141110883.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180515_141110883.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180515_141110883" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-36511 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="36511" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1526393470","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.05","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180515_141110883" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180515_141110883.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 Lets start with our “model” flower, the
 
 Chembarathi
 
 or Hibiscus:


 <a alt="IMG_20180514_134823596.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180514_134823596.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180514_134823596" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-36523 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="36523" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1526305703","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.076923076923077","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180514_134823596" data-recalc-dims="1" height="225" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180514_134823596.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>
 <a alt="IMG_20180514_134805061.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180514_134805061.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180514_134805061" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-36524 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="36524" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1526305685","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"1000","shutter_speed":"0.04","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180514_134805061" data-recalc-dims="1" height="225" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180514_134805061.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>


 (
 
 Hibiscus rosa-sinensis
 
 )


 Here’s its spiney pollen under the microscope:


 <a alt="IMG_20180514_141851707.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180514_141851707.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180514_141851707" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-36521 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="36521" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1526307531","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.071428571428571","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180514_141851707" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180514_141851707.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 Here’s a another common ornamental plant, the creeping daisy, and its numerous tiny pollen


 <a alt="IMG_20180514_095536318.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180514_095536318.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180514_095536318" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-36526 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="36526" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1526291736","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"125","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180514_095536318" data-recalc-dims="1" height="225" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180514_095536318.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>
 <a alt="IMG_20180514_144000491.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180514_144000491.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180514_144000491" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-36520 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="36520" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1526308800","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.04","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180514_144000491" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180514_144000491.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 (
 
 Sphagneticola trilobata
 
 )


 Here’s a not so common ornamental plant and its pollen,


 <a alt="IMG_20180514_095600533.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180514_095600533.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180514_095600533" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-36525 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="36525" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1526291760","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"200","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180514_095600533" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180514_095600533.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>
 <a alt="IMG_20180514_135802085_LL.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180514_135802085_LL.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180514_135802085_LL" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-36522 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="36522" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1526306282","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"1000","shutter_speed":"0.071428571428571","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180514_135802085_LL" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180514_135802085_LL.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 I think its version of the common Kanakambram (
 
 Crossandra infundibuliformis
 
 )


 The African Tulip tree is also in flower now:


 <a alt="IMG_20180515_084145075.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180515_084145075.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180515_084145075" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-36518 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="36518" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1526373705","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"100","shutter_speed":"0.0030674846625767","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180515_084145075" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180515_084145075.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>
 <a alt="IMG_20180515_084151350.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180515_084151350.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180515_084151350" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-36517 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="36517" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1526373711","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"160","shutter_speed":"0.01","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180515_084151350" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180515_084151350.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 (
 
 Spathodea campanulata
 
 )


 Here’s its pollen:


 <a alt="IMG_20180515_140237222.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180515_140237222.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180515_140237222" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-36513 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="36513" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1526392957","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"320","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180515_140237222" data-recalc-dims="1" height="225" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180515_140237222.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>


 Here’s a young
 
 Maghzam
 
 trees’ delicately fragrant blossoms:


 <a alt="IMG_20180515_084206387.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180515_084206387.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180515_084206387" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-36516 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="36516" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1526373726","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"200","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180515_084206387" data-recalc-dims="1" height="225" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180515_084206387.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>
 <a alt="IMG_20180515_084214815.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180515_084214815.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180515_084214815" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-36515 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="36515" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1526373734","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"200","shutter_speed":"0.01","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180515_084214815" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180515_084214815.jpg" width="225"/>
 (
 </a>


 (
 
 Mimusops elengi
 
 )


 Here’s what its pollen and stigma look like:


 <a alt="IMG_20180515_134806031.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180515_134806031.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180515_134806031" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-36514 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="36514" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1526392086","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"200","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180515_134806031" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180515_134806031.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>
 <a alt="IMG_20180515_140408753.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180515_140408753.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180515_140408753" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-36512 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="36512" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1526393048","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180515_140408753" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180515_140408753.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 Finally, for some of the flowers we tried, like this flower, I think we missed the pollen part of its life cycle 🙁


 <a alt="IMG_20180515_084128083.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180515_084128083.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180515_084128083" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-36519 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="36519" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1526373688","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"160","shutter_speed":"0.01","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180515_084128083" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_36509/IMG_20180515_084128083.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 (Can you guess what flower this is?)


 For others trying to collect and see pollen, here’s what we learnt:

<ol>
 <li>
 The whorls of the flower are not always exactly as in the model flowers you find in textbooks!
 </li>
 <li>
 Flowers mature over the course of days and its hard to tell if its in a “pollen stage” or “stigma stage”. If you want to see pollen, its probably better to pick a flower off the ground than off the plant/tree: that way you know its fully matured.
 </li>
 <li>
 Pollen colour is hard to see. Especially with the usual Foldscope LED from behind the sample. We did try taking images without the LED light but they weren’t quite as nice. Maybe we should try with epi-illumination like we did here:
 </li>
</ol>
<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="H3dT4c8v3O">
 
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=34313">
 Sea urchin spike
 </a>
 
</blockquote>

 <iframe class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="H3dT4c8v3O" frameborder="0" height="338" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" sandbox="allow-scripts" scrolling="no" security="restricted" src="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=34313&amp;embed=true#?secret=H3dT4c8v3O" style="position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);" title="“Sea urchin spike” — Microcosmos" width="600">
 </iframe>

More Pollen!

Here’s a common shrub in Chennai:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37281">
 <img alt="IMG_20180428_180401237" class="alignnone wp-image-37281 size-medium alignleft gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37281" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1524938641","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180428_180401237" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37278/IMG_20180428_180401237.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 I think there is also a variant with bright yellow flowers. I don’t know the species name, but I’ve
 <a href="https://indiabiodiversity.org/observation/show/1798919">
 posted
 </a>
 it on
 <a href="https://indiabiodiversity.org/">
 India Biodiversity Portal
 </a>
 to see if anyone there can ID it.


 Heres its pretty flower:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37280">
 <img alt="IMG_20180428_194427309_LL" class="alignnone wp-image-37280 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37280" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1524944667","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"3200","shutter_speed":"0.076923076923077","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180428_194427309_LL" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37278/IMG_20180428_194427309_LL.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 There’s a lot of easy to see pollen on the anthers — enough that some of it has spilled onto the filaments. So I put that on a slide and looked at it:


 <a alt="IMG_20180428_195308238.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37278/IMG_20180428_195308238.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180428_195308238" class="aligncenter wp-image-37279 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37279" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180428_195308238" data-recalc-dims="1" height="681" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37278/IMG_20180428_195308238.jpg" width="511"/>
 </a>


 I have also been thinking about how to measure pollen size. In the comments to one of
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=33577">
 my previous posts on
 
 Karuvaipillai
 
 pollen
 </a>
 , it was suggested that I use the background grid to calibrate the image like done here:

<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="sQLI6xTHgf">
 
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=23496">
 Measuring the Foldscope Universe-1: Using the kit scale
 </a>
 
</blockquote>

 <iframe class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="sQLI6xTHgf" frameborder="0" height="338" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" sandbox="allow-scripts" scrolling="no" security="restricted" src="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=23496&amp;embed=true#?secret=sQLI6xTHgf" style="position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);" title="“Measuring the Foldscope Universe-1: Using the kit scale” — Microcosmos" width="600">
 </iframe>


 I did just that with this nifty open source image analysis software called
 <a href="https://fiji.sc/">
 Fiji
 </a>
 (previously ImageJ) to calibrate the image:

<ol>
 <li>
 measure the number of pixels covered by the thickness of grid line
 </li>
 <li>
 divide that by 100 microns (thats apparently the actual thickness of the grid lines)
 </li>
 <li>
 you have a pixel &lt;—&gt; micron conversion!
 </li>
</ol>

 For this image it turns out, the thickness of the grid line is ~312 pixels. So a 100 micron scale bar needs to 312 pixels in length. 🙂


 More generally, for this image, 1 pixel = 0.32 microns. To measure the pollen, just see how many pixels it spans: these span about 244 pixels (lengthwise) so they are ~80 microns long. Similarly, we can measure pretty much anything else in this field of view!


 Now, in addition to observing that our pollen has 3 lobe-sort-of-things, I can estimate that the pollen is about 80 microns long and that each “lobe” is about 30 microns in diameter.


 
 ERRATUM: There seems to be an error in this measurement, that I think has to do with the grid line being out of focus. Please see my post about the correction here:
 

<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="ICQc2taBXx">
 
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=37466">
 More Measurements
 </a>
 
</blockquote>

 <iframe class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="ICQc2taBXx" frameborder="0" height="338" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" sandbox="allow-scripts" scrolling="no" security="restricted" src="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=37466&amp;embed=true#?secret=ICQc2taBXx" style="position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);" title="“More Measurements” — Microcosmos" width="600">
 </iframe>


 As a side bar, I learnt that these “lobes” are actually because of elongated furrows on the pollen coat called colpi (singular: colpus). These allow pollen grains to shrink and swell in response to moisture with out totally desiccating or bursting. Our little pollen of unknown shrub, has 3 colpi. In fact,
 <a alt="20666" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37278/20666">
 Eudicots
 </a>
 (
 
 most
 
 flowering plants) have pollen with 3 colpi (or some evolutionary derivative of it) and because of this conserved evolutionary trait, the members of this clade are often called Tricolpates after their pollen!!


 Anyway, coming back to measuring pollen, a harder problem is what happens in you don’t have nice a grid line in the background — either its really out of focus or the area you zoomed into has really cool pollen but no grid lines?? I think I may have a solution for this too. But you will have to wait for my next post…


 <a href="https://thewinnower.com/papers/9008-measuring-pollen-peacock-flower-pollen" target="_blank">
 This post is open to read and review on The Winnower.
 </a>

Measuring pollen (Peacock flower pollen)

So here are more trials with measurements on the Foldscope. I promise there is cool pollen at the end. (But feel free to jut TLDR and scroll to the end if you are just looking for cool pollen pics…)


 As pointed out by
 
 
 <a class="url fn n" href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?author=198">
 @laksiyer
 </a>
 
 
 , there was a discrepancy in my estimated pollen size and the size he estimated in a previous post:

<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="YSPelIYj4Y">
 
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=4186">
 Pollen Hunters project-II : Pollen roster
 </a>
 
</blockquote>

 <iframe class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="YSPelIYj4Y" frameborder="0" height="338" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" sandbox="allow-scripts" scrolling="no" security="restricted" src="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=4186&amp;embed=true#?secret=YSPelIYj4Y" style="position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);" title="“Pollen Hunters project-II : Pollen roster” — Microcosmos" width="600">
 </iframe>


 Theres also a very recent informative (and beautiful) post on pollen size diversity by @
 
 
 <a class="url fn n" href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?author=2297">
 kaushalsood
 </a>
 
 
 :

<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="pxfi3v85GS">
 
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=37453">
 Viewing and Measuring size of Pollen using Foldscope
 </a>
 
</blockquote>

 <iframe class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="pxfi3v85GS" frameborder="0" height="338" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" sandbox="allow-scripts" scrolling="no" security="restricted" src="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=37453&amp;embed=true#?secret=pxfi3v85GS" style="position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);" title="“Viewing and Measuring size of Pollen using Foldscope” — Microcosmos" width="600">
 </iframe>


 Here, @
 
 
 <a class="url fn n" href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?author=2297">
 kaushalsood
 </a>
 
 
 measures
 
 Caesalpinia pulcherrima
 
 pollen to be 65-70 microns. Which is also different from
 
 
 <a class="url fn n" href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?author=198">
 @laksiyer
 </a>
 
 
 ‘s measurement of 50-60 microns. My estimate was 80 microns. (I think my estimate is most probably inaccurate — I’ll try and explain how I fix that later in this post.)


 One possibility is that there is large natural variation in pollen size between individuals of the same species. More likely, pollen size varies as a result of dessication level. Either or both of these could be true — we would have to ask a
 <a alt="Palynology" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37466/Palynology">
 palynologist
 </a>
 (a word I recently learnt) . In the meantime, its probably a good idea to converge on Foldscope measurement methods.


 So after reading
 
 
 <a class="url fn n" href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?author=198">
 @laksiyer
 </a>
 
 
 ‘s comment to my
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=37278">
 previous post
 </a>
 , I went back to the Foldscope and took an image of just the grid, in focus. I then measured the number of pixels in the grid line, and set that to 100 microns. Here’s it with a scale bar:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37468">
 <img alt="IMG_20180526_135013109" class="alignnone wp-image-37468 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37468" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180526_135013109" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37466/IMG_20180526_135013109.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 I used
 <a href="https://fiji.sc/">
 Fiji/ImageJ
 </a>
 to measure the diameter of the lens to be around 810 microns.


 Using this new radius measurement, I re-calibrated the image from my previous post and updated the scale bar:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37279">
 <img alt="IMG_20180428_195308238" class="alignnone wp-image-37279 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37279" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180428_195308238" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37466/IMG_20180428_195308238.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37470">
 <img alt="IMG_20180428_195308238_new" class="alignnone wp-image-37470 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37470" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180428_195308238_new" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37466/IMG_20180428_195308238_new.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 Notice that the scale bar is slightly bigger in the newly calibrated image (green scale bar).


 So now, I would estimate the pollen of
 
 C. pulcherrima
 
 to be ~60 microns, with the colpi making lobes ~20 microns in diameter.


 Using the diameter, I can also calibrate images from other pollen like from
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=33577">
 this
 
 Karuvaipillai
 
 (
 
 Murraya koenigii
 
 ) flower that I posted about earlier
 </a>
 :


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37472">
 <img alt="IMG_20180526_130650410" class="alignnone wp-image-37472 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37472" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180526_130650410" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37466/IMG_20180526_130650410.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 It seems like
 
 M. koenigii
 
 pollen are pretty uniform: 32-36 microns in length. (This is not always true — Banana pollen is strange! I have posted about my altercation with it
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=37606">
 here
 </a>
 .)


 Since
 
 M. koenigii
 
 pollen are so uniform, as long as you can see pollen, you calibrate the image! I took pollen length to be 34 microns and calibrated these two images using the pollen itself:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37474">
 <img alt="IMG_20180526_125944040" class="alignnone wp-image-37474 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37474" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180526_125944040" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37466/IMG_20180526_125944040.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37473">
 <img alt="IMG_20180526_130916190" class="alignnone wp-image-37473 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37473" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180526_130916190" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37466/IMG_20180526_130916190.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 Not only can I get more pollen lengths, but also, from the second image where I can see the colpi of one pollen grain, I can estimate the inner and outer diameters of the pollen to be 7 microns and 11 microns respectively.


 Now, we can also cut out two 200×200 micron squares out of different images and compare them:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37578">
 <img alt="line" class="alignnone wp-image-37578 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37578" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="line" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37466/line.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>
 <a alt="peacockflower.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37466/peacockflower.jpg">
 <img alt="peacockflower" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-37820 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37820" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="peacockflower" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37466/peacockflower.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37816">
 <img alt="karuvaipilllai" class="alignnone wp-image-37816 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37816" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="karuvaipilllai" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37466/karuvaipilllai.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>


 (You can do this easily in Fiji: Edit –&gt; Selection –&gt; Specify)


 However, we do still need to converge on a measurement method. The grid measurement and calibration seems reasonable. But How do we adapt that to images that are either without a grid or without recorded zoom (if you get very excited, like me, when you look at cool pollen and start zooming in to see them better).


 Putting aside the palynology questions mentioned earlier, there are some Foldscope questions we can try to figure out to get accurate pollen (or any) measurements:

<ol>
 <li>
 Is there a standard diameter of the Foldscope lens? Is this a good way to calibrate images?
 </li>
 <li>
 It’s not clear to me how the zoom on the phone camera changes the image. Obviously, the phone camera zoom doesn’t change the resolution of the Foldscope lens. But does zooming actually give a higher resolution
 
 through
 
 the phone camera? (There are two lens’ involved here — so the optics is a but confusing to me…)
 </li>
 <li>
 Finally, is there a good way to calculate error bars on size of things seen under a Foldscope??
 </li>
</ol>

 As a side note: one of the activities for my DBT-Foldscope project is to get students to figure out how to measure (and why). I’m sure they will have some fun ideas — I will update this post with what they come up with…


 <a href="https://thewinnower.com/papers/9009-more-measurements" target="_blank">
 This post is open to read and review on The Winnower.
 </a>

More Measurements

Here’s a
 <a href="https://indiabiodiversity.org/species/show/264875">
 Badam tree (
 
 Terminalia catappa
 
 )
 </a>
 flowering :


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37527">
 <img alt="IMG_20180428_180013782" class="alignnone wp-image-37527 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37527" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1524938413","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"500","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180428_180013782" data-recalc-dims="1" height="225" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37526/IMG_20180428_180013782.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>


 When I was trying to get pollen I found this well camouflaged
 <a href="https://indiabiodiversity.org/observation/show/1798839">
 spider
 </a>
 hanging around:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37532">
 <img alt="IMG_20180525_105857980_HDR" class="alignnone wp-image-37532 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37532" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1527245938","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"100","shutter_speed":"0.0038910505836576","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180525_105857980_HDR" data-recalc-dims="1" height="541" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37526/IMG_20180525_105857980_HDR.jpg" width="721"/>
 </a>


 Not sure if it’s a pollinator or it’s lurking around for pollinators……


 Even after avoiding our spider friend, plucking flowers and squashing anthers did not work very well — the pollen was surprisingly hard to find!! I had to take the cello-tape directly to the flowers and brush them with it. Anyway, here’s its pollen:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37530">
 <img alt="IMG_20180525_110824484" class="alignnone wp-image-37530 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37530" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180525_110824484" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37526/IMG_20180525_110824484.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37529">
 <img alt="IMG_20180525_111327166" class="alignnone wp-image-37529 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37529" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180525_111327166" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37526/IMG_20180525_111327166.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 For scale bars, I used the method described in
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=37466">
 this post about measuring with a Foldscope
 </a>
 .


 Badam pollen looks really tiny and delicate (only one of those things is actually true). I estimate the pollen grains to be about 25 microns in length (and as far as I can tell, has 3 furrows on the coat so, as expected, is a
 <a alt="20666" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37526/20666">
 Tricolpate
 </a>
 ).


 You can see that from this video where I go up an down in Z:

<div class="jetpack-video-wrapper">
 
 <iframe allowfullscreen="true" class="youtube-player" height="563" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sZLAPkemjmc?version=3&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent" style="border:0;" type="text/html" width="1000">
 </iframe>
 
</div>

 Here’s the pollen at the same magnification (200×200 micron squares) as other things:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37578">
 <img alt="line" class="alignnone wp-image-37578 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37578" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="line" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37526/line.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37813">
 <img alt="badam" class="alignnone wp-image-37813 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37813" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="badam" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37526/badam-1.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>


 Grid line (100 microns) and
 
 T. catappa
 
 pollen
 
 
 


 <a alt="peacockflower.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37526/peacockflower.jpg">
 <img alt="peacockflower" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-37820 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37820" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="peacockflower" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37526/peacockflower.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37816">
 <img alt="karuvaipilllai" class="alignnone wp-image-37816 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37816" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="karuvaipilllai" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37526/karuvaipilllai.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>


 (compare these to
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=37466">
 
 C. pulcherrima
 
 </a>
 and
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=33577">
 
 M. koenigii
 
 </a>
 <a alt="karuvaipilllai.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37526/karuvaipilllai.jpg">
 )
 </a>


 <a href="https://thewinnower.com/papers/9010-desi-badam-pollen" target="_blank">
 This post is open to read and review on The Winnower.
 </a>

Desi Badam pollen

A friend of mine brought me a
 
 Vazhaipoo
 
 (banana flower) from his farm:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37608">
 <img alt="IMG_20180520_103205316_LL" class="alignleft wp-image-37608 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37608" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1526812325","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"1600","shutter_speed":"0.076923076923077","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180520_103205316_LL" data-recalc-dims="1" height="438" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37606/IMG_20180520_103205316_LL.jpg" width="584"/>
 </a>
 Here are a close up of the tiny florets:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37607">
 <img alt="IMG_20180520_103823748" class="alignnone wp-image-37607 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37607" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1526812703","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"3200","shutter_speed":"0.076923076923077","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180520_103823748" data-recalc-dims="1" height="229" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37606/IMG_20180520_103823748.jpg" width="305"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37609">
 <img alt="IMG_20180520_104335196_LL" class="alignnone wp-image-37609 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37609" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1526813015","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"1000","shutter_speed":"0.076923076923077","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180520_104335196_LL" data-recalc-dims="1" height="151" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37606/IMG_20180520_104335196_LL.jpg" width="201"/>
 </a>


 This is a delicacy in south Indian homes. Basically, you take
 
 each
 
 floret, remove the style/stigma (they are very fibrous) and the sepal like transparent thing. Then you can cook the florets. I’m convinced its mainly a delicacy because this cleaning process takes HOURS and no one wants to do that very often.


 <a alt="IMG_20180525_112820264.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37606/IMG_20180525_112820264.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180525_112820264" class="wp-image-37610 alignleft gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37610" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1527247700","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"1600","shutter_speed":"0.076923076923077","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180525_112820264" data-recalc-dims="1" height="187" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37606/IMG_20180525_112820264.jpg" width="140"/>
 </a>
 Here’s a stamen. I figured the pollen is somewhere on here so I just took this and dabbed it onto cello tape many times and then made a slide out of it.






 Initially, the slide looked like it had nothing on it. But after a lot of searching I found what I think is banana pollen:


 <a alt="IMG_20180525_095306852.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37606/IMG_20180525_095306852.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180525_095306852" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-37613 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37613" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180525_095306852" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37606/IMG_20180525_095306852.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>
 <a alt="IMG_20180525_095254767.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37606/IMG_20180525_095254767.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180525_095254767" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-37612 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37612" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180525_095254767" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37606/IMG_20180525_095254767.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>
 <a alt="IMG_20180525_094959818.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37606/IMG_20180525_094959818.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180525_094959818" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-37611 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37611" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180525_094959818" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37606/IMG_20180525_094959818.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 If you look closely, you see these round glassy things. I think these are banana pollen. It seems like it can be anywhere from 70 – 140 microns! Also, there wasn’t that much pollen.


 Well, that was only the first set of florets — so maybe there will be more pollen in younger florets? (Also, I have to clean the rest of the
 
 vazhapoo
 
 before I can cook it!)


 <a alt="IMG_20180520_111241685_LL.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37606/IMG_20180520_111241685_LL.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180520_111241685_LL" class="wp-image-37614 alignleft gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37614" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1526814761","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"1000","shutter_speed":"0.076923076923077","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180520_111241685_LL" data-recalc-dims="1" height="332" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37606/IMG_20180520_111241685_LL.jpg" width="443"/>
 </a>
 Every time I think I’m almost there I find a another set of slorets!


 <a alt="IMG_20180520_113907990.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37606/IMG_20180520_113907990.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180520_113907990" class="alignnone wp-image-37615 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37615" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1526816347","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.076923076923077","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180520_113907990" data-recalc-dims="1" height="280" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37606/IMG_20180520_113907990.jpg" width="210"/>
 </a>
 <a alt="IMG_20180520_120008413.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37606/IMG_20180520_120008413.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180520_120008413" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-37616 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37616" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1526817608","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"640","shutter_speed":"0.033333333333333","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180520_120008413" data-recalc-dims="1" height="225" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37606/IMG_20180520_120008413.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>


 Anyway, here’s a what I saw on stamens from younger flowers (inner florets):


 <a alt="IMG_20180525_100015069.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37606/IMG_20180525_100015069.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180525_100015069" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-37617 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37617" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180525_100015069" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37606/IMG_20180525_100015069.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 They look very different from the pollen from mature flowers — perhaps they are not quite pollen yet? Also, they are smaller: 60 – 110 microns.


 The Scientific name for Banana is
 
 Musa
 
 . It’s part of a monocot group with a really fun name:
 <a alt="21339" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37606/21339">
 Zingiberanae
 </a>
 ! This group also includes things like Ginger. One of the characteristics of this group is that these plants have pollen grains without ‘distinctive’ apertures and a reduced outer coat (exine layer). (Also, ‘silica bodies’ in their cells — I’ll find find out more about this soon and post!)


 Here they are the stamens and pollen side by side:


 <a alt="banana_stamen.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37606/banana_stamen.jpg">
 <img alt="banana_stamen" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-37619 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37619" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"1250","shutter_speed":"0.076923076923077","title":"","orientation":"1"}' data-image-title="banana_stamen" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37606/banana_stamen.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>
 <a alt="banana_y.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37606/banana_y.jpg">
 <img alt="banana_y.jpg" class="alignnone wp-image-37826 size-medium gcloudimg" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37606/banana_y.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>
 <a alt="banana_o.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37606/banana_o.jpg">
 <img alt="banana_o.jpg" class="alignnone wp-image-37825 size-medium gcloudimg" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37606/banana_o.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>


 (Pollen images are 200×200 microns
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=37466">
 as described in a previous post
 </a>
 .)


 A couple of hours later, I had a yummy lunch of s
 
 amme
 
 , p
 
 arupu podi
 
 and Zingiberanae flowers:


 <a alt="IMG_20180520_144631087_LL.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37606/IMG_20180520_144631087_LL.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180520_144631087_LL" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-37622 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37622" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1526827591","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"1600","shutter_speed":"0.076923076923077","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180520_144631087_LL" data-recalc-dims="1" height="225" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37606/IMG_20180520_144631087_LL.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>




 <a href="https://thewinnower.com/papers/9011-vazhaipoo-pollen" target="_blank">
 This post is open to read and review on The Winnower.
 </a>

Vazhaipoo pollen

I was walking to my office and noticed these Copper Pod (
 
 Peltophorum pterocarpum
 
 ) flowers:


 <a alt="IMG_20180525_122349221.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37643/IMG_20180525_122349221.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180525_122349221" class="wp-image-37671 alignleft gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37671" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1527251029","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"125","shutter_speed":"0.01","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180525_122349221" data-recalc-dims="1" height="152" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37643/IMG_20180525_122349221.jpg" width="203"/>
 </a>
 It’s a bit past their flowering season, so there aren’t really that many flowers:


 <a alt="IMG_20180525_122406964.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37643/IMG_20180525_122406964.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180525_122406964" class="alignnone wp-image-37672 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37672" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1527251047","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"100","shutter_speed":"0.0015082956259427","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180525_122406964" data-recalc-dims="1" height="332" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37643/IMG_20180525_122406964.jpg" width="443"/>
 </a>


 The flowers are laden with pollen — I couldn’t even get it back to my office without dusting my fingers with pollen:


 <a alt="IMG_20180525_123210182.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37643/IMG_20180525_123210182.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180525_123210182" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-37675 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37675" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1527251530","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180525_123210182" data-recalc-dims="1" height="225" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37643/IMG_20180525_123210182.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>


 Here are many many fresh pollen viewed on the Foldscope:


 <a alt="IMG_20180525_123638664.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37643/IMG_20180525_123638664.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180525_123638664" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-37676 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37676" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180525_123638664" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37643/IMG_20180525_123638664.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 I estimate that the pollen is about 38-40 microns and the inner and outer radius 10 and 13 microns respectively. The pollen is also
 <a alt="20666" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37643/20666">
 tricolpate (and therefore a eudicot)
 </a>
 , no surprise there.


 <a alt="copperpod.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37643/copperpod.jpg">
 <img alt="copperpod" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-37678 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37678" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="copperpod" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37643/copperpod.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>


 You can even see the texture on the pollen coat! Pollen coats are called the exine and are made of Sporopollenin, an extremely resistant substance. It is so strong and unreactive that it can survive for &gt;500 million years and often shows up in fossil records! Its believed that Sporopollenin is a polymer of some sort. But currently,
 <a href="http://www.biologydiscussion.com/plant-anatomy/composition-of-sporopollenin-in-spores-and-pollen-plants/68924">
 its not entirely clear its made of
 </a>
 !


 Heres a video with changing the focal plane. See how the exine pattern comes in and out of focus?

<div class="jetpack-video-wrapper">
 
 <iframe allowfullscreen="true" class="youtube-player" height="563" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W-gF-RvDOtk?version=3&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent" style="border:0;" type="text/html" width="1000">
 </iframe>
 
</div>

 <a href="https://thewinnower.com/papers/9012-copper-pod-pollen" target="_blank">
 This post is open to read and review on The Winnower.
 </a>

Copper pod pollen

Pollen list

Indian Laburnum pollen &#8212; a story of many anthers

There’s a small dense grove of
 
 Nagalingam
 
 (
 
 Couroupita guianensis
 
 ) trees on campus. Here’s one of the trees with its many low thin bare branches:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37956">
 <img alt="IMG_20180523_164414919" class="wp-image-37956 alignleft gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37956" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1527093854","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"125","shutter_speed":"0.02","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180523_164414919" data-recalc-dims="1" height="413" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37955/IMG_20180523_164414919.jpg" width="310"/>
 </a>
 There’s a lovely indescribable sweet but not quite saccharine fragrance as you walk by.


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37957">
 <img alt="IMG_20180524_123057943" class="alignnone wp-image-37957 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37957" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1527165058","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"200","shutter_speed":"0.01","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180524_123057943" data-recalc-dims="1" height="333" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37955/IMG_20180524_123057943.jpg" width="443"/>
 </a>


 Here’s one of the thick and rubbery fallen flowers:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37958">
 <img alt="IMG_20180524_123036185" class="alignnone wp-image-37958 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37958" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1527165036","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"125","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180524_123036185" data-recalc-dims="1" height="311" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37955/IMG_20180524_123036185.jpg" width="233"/>
 </a>


 So I picked up one of these flowers and squashed an anther onto a slide to view under the Foldscope. And here’s what I saw:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37973">
 <img alt="IMG_20180524_083113784" class="alignnone wp-image-37973 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37973" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180524_083113784" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37955/IMG_20180524_083113784.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37972">
 <img alt="IMG_20180524_083450150" class="alignnone wp-image-37972 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37972" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180524_083450150" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37955/IMG_20180524_083450150.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 They look to me like tetrad pollen! (Some of them may look like there are only 3, but I think the 4th one is out of focus. You can sort of see a dark blotch where the fourth one is.) Each of the pollen grains in the tetrad are about 20 microns in length and 10 microns wide.


 This was
 
 already
 
 very exciting — I haven’t really seen a lot of tetrad pollen (other than possibly in
 
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=34276">
 Seethapzham
 </a>
 ,
 
 which was not very convincing since there were very few pollen to see anyway.)


 But then, just before I threw out the flower, I broke off the ‘hood’. (In fact, in many Indian languages, the name of this tree is some derivative of
 
 nag
 
 or snake since the flower has this Cobra hood like structure.)


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37959">
 <img alt="IMG_20180528_154555445" class="alignnone wp-image-37959 size-large gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37959" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1527522355","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180528_154555445" data-recalc-dims="1" height="750" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37955/IMG_20180528_154555445.jpg" width="1000"/>
 </a>


 To my surprise I discovered that what I assumed to be pistils seemed like more anthers?! Here are is the base filament/pistil next to what are clearly recognizable as filaments with anthers:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37960">
 <img alt="IMG_20180528_154845996" class="alignnone wp-image-37960 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37960" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1527522526","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180528_154845996" data-recalc-dims="1" height="466" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37955/IMG_20180528_154845996.jpg" width="498"/>
 </a>


 I squashed the tip of the smaller unknown thing on a slide, expecting to see some sticky stigma, but instead, saw this:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37975">
 <img alt="IMG_20180528_213347647" class="alignnone wp-image-37975 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37975" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180528_213347647" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37955/IMG_20180528_213347647.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37974">
 <img alt="IMG_20180524_095220596" class="alignnone wp-image-37974 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37974" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180524_095220596" data-recalc-dims="1" height="225" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37955/IMG_20180524_095220596.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>


 MORE POLLEN?? Definitely not tetrads though!


 By my estimate these are also 20 microns in length and 10 microns in diameter — probably also pollen. These pollen seem to be about the same size as the individual pollen in the tetrad pollen (for comparison, notice in the top right side of the first image: a tetrad pollen that has snuck in). The tetrad pollen is somewhat darker too.


 I took an image of a single squashed small undetermined thing just to confirm that I wasn’t somehow breaking up the tetrads:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37977">
 <img alt="IMG_20180524_095349095" class="alignnone wp-image-37977 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37977" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180524_095349095" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37955/IMG_20180524_095349095.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 Here are the two types of pollen side by side:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37981">
 <img alt="nagalingam_h" class="alignnone wp-image-37981 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37981" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="nagalingam_h" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37955/nagalingam_h.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37979">
 <img alt="nagalingam_b" class="alignnone wp-image-37979 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37979" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="nagalingam_b" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37955/nagalingam_b.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>


 Maybe one of the pollen types are just not mature yet?? Maybe the tetrads break up when they reach the stigma? The end of the smaller undetermined thing definitely looked more like an anther than a hairy, sticky stigma though…


 I went back to the tree and got a good look at the that thin low branches that hold flowers.


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=37968">
 <img alt="IMG_20180524_123149985" class="alignnone wp-image-37968 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="37968" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1527165109","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"100","shutter_speed":"0.008695652173913","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180524_123149985" data-recalc-dims="1" height="569" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37955/IMG_20180524_123149985.jpg" width="759"/>
 </a>


 It seemed like once the flower wilts and falls, the pistil stays on the tree (you can see them here above the open flower). So maybe these base thingis actually hold different anthers?


 A few Google searchs later, I found that dimorphic anthers and pollen is a
 <a alt="presentation_slide_13.htm" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_37955/presentation_slide_13.htm">
 known feature of the flowers
 </a>
 of
 <a href="http://sweetgum.nybg.org/science/projects/lp/?irn=133473">
 
 Lecythidaceae
 
 or the Brazil nut family
 </a>
 and one of its members is our
 
 Nagalingam
 
 . (If pollinated, the fertilized ovaries left on the tree will develop into a cannon ball like fruit which is where the tree gets its English name:
 <a href="https://www.nybg.org/blogs/plant-talk/2013/01/science/the-cannon-ball-tree/">
 Cannon Ball tree
 </a>
 ). The flowers do not have any nectar and pollinators (mainly Carpenter bees) are attracted to the flower for its special pollen — the tetrad form on the hood — which they collect to feed to their larvae. These tetrad hood pollen however, are infertile and do not germinate. The base (or ring) anthers have fertile monoid pollen. So when the bees come to collect larvae food (infertile pollen), their head and back are dusted with the
 
 fertile
 
 pollen which they will then deposit on another flower they visit to harvest more food!


 Now I am wondering what other dimorphic pollen I missed because I only looked at
 
 one
 
 side of a flower or
 
 one
 
 anther of
 
 one
 
 side of a flower (not to mention just
 
 one flower
 
 )! I am especially thinking about
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=37845">
 my last post about Indian Laburnum
 </a>
 which definitely has dimorphic anthers — but is the pollen dimorphic too?? Stay tuned… will check and post soon.


 I hope some of these amazing evolutionarily crafted flowers are still in bloom when I start working with school students next week when schools reopen……..


 PS – Check out a full list of pollen I have been observing:

<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="emtW08TvGY">
 
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=37651">
 Pollen list
 </a>
 
</blockquote>

 <iframe class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="emtW08TvGY" frameborder="0" height="338" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" sandbox="allow-scripts" scrolling="no" security="restricted" src="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=37651&amp;embed=true#?secret=emtW08TvGY" style="position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);" title="“Pollen list” — Microcosmos" width="600">
 </iframe>


 <a href="https://thewinnower.com/papers/9016-nagalingam-pollen-diversity-in-the-same-flower" target="_blank">
 This post is open to read and review on The Winnower.
 </a>

Nagalingam Pollen &#8212; diversity in the SAME flower!

I planted
 
 a
 
 fern in my garden a couple of months ago and ferns have been taking over!


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=38678">
 <img alt="IMG_20180602_111527616" class="alignnone wp-image-38678 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="38678" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1527938127","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"100","shutter_speed":"0.0095238095238095","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180602_111527616" data-recalc-dims="1" height="225" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_38653/IMG_20180602_111527616.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=38686">
 <img alt="IMG_20180602_123154821" class="alignnone wp-image-38686 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="38686" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1527942715","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"125","shutter_speed":"0.01","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180602_123154821" data-recalc-dims="1" height="332" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_38653/IMG_20180602_123154821.jpg" width="443"/>
 </a>


 I’m not sure about the species — Ostrich fern (
 
 Matteuccia orientalis
 
 )?


 I remember learning about fern reproduction involving some strange alternation of generations with ‘spores’ that grow on the underside of leaves. Sure enough, there were a tonne of these on the plant:


 <a alt="IMG_20180602_111541025.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_38653/IMG_20180602_111541025.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180602_111541025" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-38682 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="38682" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1527938141","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"100","shutter_speed":"0.008695652173913","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180602_111541025" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_38653/IMG_20180602_111541025.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 So I brushed some cello tape on these ‘spores’ and looked at them under the Foldscope. I saw these centurion helmet like things:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=38689">
 <img alt="IMG_20180602_114201438" class="alignnone wp-image-38689 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="38689" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180602_114201438" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_38653/IMG_20180602_114201438.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=38692">
 <img alt="IMG_20180602_114409929" class="alignnone wp-image-38692 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="38692" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180602_114409929" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_38653/IMG_20180602_114409929.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 The whole object is about 110 microns in diameter and the mohock like thing is about 20 microns in width.


 I could hardly remember what was n or 2n or sporohytes or gametes: so I dug out my botany textbook from college to refresh my memory.


 <a alt="IMG_20180602_144815566.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_38653/IMG_20180602_144815566.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180602_144815566" class="alignnone wp-image-38696 size-large gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="38696" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1527950895","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.071428571428571","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180602_144815566" data-recalc-dims="1" height="750" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_38653/IMG_20180602_144815566.jpg" width="1000"/>
 </a>


 Ferns are part of a clade (that was) called
 <a alt="20615" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_38653/20615">
 Pteridophyta
 </a>
 . The leaves that you see are the 2n generation. On the underside of leaves, they form sori (singular: sorus) that are a collection of sporangia (singular: sporangium). Each sporangium consists of a stalk with a capsule which holds spores: the gametophyte generation (n). (Reference: Biology of Plants by Raven
 
 et. al.
 
 )


 So these centurion helmet like things were the sporangium, the site of meiosis: going from 2n to n! If you look closely you can see the bean shaped spores (n) that have come out of some of a sporangium:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=38694">
 <img alt="IMG_20180602_114727281" class="alignnone wp-image-38694 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="38694" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180602_114727281" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_38653/IMG_20180602_114727281.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>
 (spores = 25 – 30 microns)


 The really interesting thing I learnt is how the sporangia disperse the spores. The layer of wall cells (the mohock on the helmet) is called an annulus. As the sporangia dry out, these cells dehydrate and shrink, causing the sporangia to suddenly break open at the thiner walled ‘lip cells’. However, this burst is NOT what releases the spores, its the snapping back of the annulus to its original position that
 <a alt="watch" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_38653/watch">
 catapults the spores
 </a>
 away!


 So I went back to the slide I made earlier in the day, and it did seem like many more of the centurion helmets had split open and catapulted their spores out since I made the slide:


 <a alt="IMG_20180602_154359169.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_38653/IMG_20180602_154359169.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180602_154359169" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-38746 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="38746" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180602_154359169" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_38653/IMG_20180602_154359169.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>
 <a alt="IMG_20180602_154405656.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_38653/IMG_20180602_154405656.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180602_154405656" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-38747 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="38747" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180602_154405656" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_38653/IMG_20180602_154405656.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 I wanted to see if I could catch one of these catapults. I tried to dehydrate them by heating: charging my phone (it gets hot for some reason when its charging), turning on the torch feature and, for good measure, also putting it under a table lamp:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=38697">
 <img alt="20180602_155303" class="alignnone wp-image-38697 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="38697" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2.4","credit":"","camera":"SM-P607T","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1527954782","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.4","iso":"50","shutter_speed":"0.033333333333333","title":"","orientation":"1"}' data-image-title="20180602_155303" data-recalc-dims="1" height="231" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_38653/20180602_155303.jpg" width="410"/>
 </a>


 I found a sporangium that I thought was almost ready to catapult its spores out and focused in on it. I tried to record it on and off (my phone complained about constant recording and overheating). I haven’t seen the catapult effect yet. (Will update here if/when I do…)


 In the meantime, I also looked for the growing gametophytes: what the spores grow into (n) and where the gametes actually meet and form the zygote (2n) that will grow into a sporophyte. New ferns grow out of these structures. But I think most of these young ferns I saw are from vegetative reproduction:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=38744">
 <img alt="IMG_20180602_125410531" class="alignnone wp-image-38744 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="38744" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1527944050","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"200","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180602_125410531" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_38653/IMG_20180602_125410531.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 I’ve “planted” some of the sori in a pot. I’ll report back if they sprout into full gametophytes.


 <a alt="IMG_20180602_125302494_HDR.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_38653/IMG_20180602_125302494_HDR.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180602_125302494_HDR" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-38748 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="38748" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1527943983","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"100","shutter_speed":"0.01","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180602_125302494_HDR" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_38653/IMG_20180602_125302494_HDR.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 But just I couldn’t get enough of the BEEEAUUTIFUL sporangia!


 <a alt="fern_sporangium.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_38653/fern_sporangium.jpg">
 <img alt="fern_sporangium" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-38749 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="38749" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="fern_sporangium" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_38653/fern_sporangium.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>
 <a alt="IMG_20180602_115245981.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_38653/IMG_20180602_115245981.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180602_115245981" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-38695 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="38695" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180602_115245981" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_38653/IMG_20180602_115245981.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 (In the the second image, you can see a top and opened out view of the sporangium.)


 The colour was a lovely amber that I don’t think the phone camera was able to quite capture. Too see it, you will have to find a fern and look at the sporangia yourself!

Fern spore catapult

Monocot pollen

A few of weeks ago, a colleague and I visited
 <a href="http://www.marudamfarmschool.org/">
 Marudam Farm School
 </a>
 (near
 <a alt="data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x3bacc0852cd3d6cd:0x74002b16e5bac856!8m2!3d12.2252841!4d79.0746957" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40088/data%3D%213m1%214b1%214m5%213m4%211s0x3bacc0852cd3d6cd%3A0x74002b16e5bac856%218m2%213d12.2252841%214d79.0746957">
 Thiruvannamalai
 </a>
 ), a couple of hours outside Chennai. This is one of the schools that will be part of my Foldscope project.


 Just as we started the discussion, a lovely seed floated by. So we decided to look at it under the Foldscope.


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=41950">
 <img alt="IMG_20180606_142701168" class="alignnone wp-image-41950 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="41950" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528295221","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"500","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180606_142701168" data-recalc-dims="1" height="406" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40088/IMG_20180606_142701168.jpg" width="541"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=41949">
 <img alt="IMG_20180606_142625768" class="alignnone wp-image-41949 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="41949" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180606_142625768" data-recalc-dims="1" height="191" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40088/IMG_20180606_142625768.jpg" width="191"/>
 </a>


 The spiney-hair-like things are 8-12 microns in width. Not sure what seed it is.


 Anyway, school was not in session yet, but we had Foldscope workshop with some of the teachers and few older students who were already on campus.


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=41954">
 <img alt="IMG_20180605_134354644" class="alignnone wp-image-41954 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="41954" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528206234","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180605_134354644" data-recalc-dims="1" height="225" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40088/IMG_20180605_134354644.jpg" width="169"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=41953">
 <img alt="IMG_20180605_134335938" class="alignnone wp-image-41953 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="41953" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528206216","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"1000","shutter_speed":"0.058823529411765","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180605_134335938" data-recalc-dims="1" height="225" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40088/IMG_20180605_134335938.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=41955">
 <img alt="IMG_20180605_141003908" class="alignnone wp-image-41955 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="41955" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528207804","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.076923076923077","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180605_141003908" data-recalc-dims="1" height="225" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40088/IMG_20180605_141003908.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>


 Students who attend the school are predominately local: from villages around as well as from the close-by town of Thiruvannamalai. The campus is located in the midst of lovely organic farms, where students and teachers are actively involved in growing what they eat. So we started our Foldscope explorations with pollen of the things that we eat.


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=41977">
 <img alt="IMG_20180605_143713442" class="alignnone wp-image-41977 size-full gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="41977" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528209433","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"125","shutter_speed":"0.02","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180605_143713442" data-recalc-dims="1" height="750" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40088/IMG_20180605_143713442.jpg" width="1000"/>
 </a>


 Here are some:


 This is a pumpkin (
 
 Cucurbita
 
 sp) flower on a vine.


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=41957">
 <img alt="IMG_20180605_084156320" class="alignnone wp-image-41957 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="41957" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528188116","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"100","shutter_speed":"0.0056497175141243","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180605_084156320" data-recalc-dims="1" height="275" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40088/IMG_20180605_084156320.jpg" width="366"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=41959">
 <img alt="IMG_20180605_140525980" class="alignnone wp-image-41959 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="41959" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180605_140525980" data-recalc-dims="1" height="211" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40088/IMG_20180605_140525980.jpg" width="158"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=41958">
 <img alt="IMG_20180605_084517488_HDR" class="alignnone wp-image-41958 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="41958" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180605_084517488_HDR" data-recalc-dims="1" height="211" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40088/IMG_20180605_084517488_HDR.jpg" width="158"/>
 </a>


 The pollen is about 85-90 microns in diameter. The left pollen image is with the Foldscope LED set up and the right image is with just using natural light. Notice how you can see much more of the texture with the natural light?


 This is a M
 
 urungai
 
 (
 
 Moringa oleifera
 
 ) flower.


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=41960">
 <img alt="IMG_20180605_092504515" class="alignnone wp-image-41960 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="41960" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528190704","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"100","shutter_speed":"0.0018552875695733","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180605_092504515" data-recalc-dims="1" height="352" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40088/IMG_20180605_092504515.jpg" width="264"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=41961">
 <img alt="IMG_20180605_092727246_HDR" class="alignnone wp-image-41961 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="41961" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528190847","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"200","shutter_speed":"0.01","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180605_092727246_HDR" data-recalc-dims="1" height="214" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40088/IMG_20180605_092727246_HDR.jpg" width="284"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=41963">
 <img alt="murangakai" class="alignnone wp-image-41963 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="41963" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="murangakai" data-recalc-dims="1" height="200" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40088/murangakai.jpg" width="200"/>
 </a>


 The pollen is about 15 microns in diameter. The flowers are a delicacy and the leaves are cooked as greens but the seed pods or
 
 Murangai-kai
 
 are a regular staple in South Indian food: often as an addition to lentils in
 
 Sambar
 
 — which we had just eaten for lunch:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=41964">
 <img alt="IMG_20180605_124909148" class="alignnone wp-image-41964 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="41964" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528202949","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.05","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180605_124909148" data-recalc-dims="1" height="309" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40088/IMG_20180605_124909148.jpg" width="324"/>
 </a>


 The other common tree on campus was the Papaya (
 
 Carica papaya
 
 ). Papaya is dioecious,
 
 i.e.
 
 male and female reproductive systems occur on different individual plants. Farmers often prefer the female plants because they are the ones that yield fruit, but the male flowers have a strong sweet smell (and pollen!) that makes them just as attractive to me! Here are flowering female (left) and male (right) plants:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=41967">
 <img alt="IMG_20180605_090746499" class="alignnone wp-image-41967 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="41967" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528189666","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"100","shutter_speed":"0.0043668122270742","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180605_090746499" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40088/IMG_20180605_090746499.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=41966">
 <img alt="IMG_20180605_090441205" class="alignnone wp-image-41966 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="41966" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528189481","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"100","shutter_speed":"0.0068965517241379","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180605_090441205" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40088/IMG_20180605_090441205.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 Here is one of the male flowers and the pollen:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=41970">
 <img alt="IMG_20180605_090604507" class="alignnone wp-image-41970 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="41970" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528189564","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"160","shutter_speed":"0.01","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180605_090604507" data-recalc-dims="1" height="269" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40088/IMG_20180605_090604507.jpg" width="404"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=41971">
 <img alt="papaya" class="alignnone wp-image-41971 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="41971" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="papaya" data-recalc-dims="1" height="200" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40088/papaya.jpg" width="200"/>
 </a>


 The pollen is about 20 microns long. The width seems variable — but that may just be because the colpi?


 We also looked at the pollen of this (non-food) tree:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=41982">
 <img alt="IMG_20180605_152045204" class="alignnone wp-image-41982 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="41982" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528212045","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"125","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180605_152045204" data-recalc-dims="1" height="329" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40088/IMG_20180605_152045204.jpg" width="439"/>
 </a>
 <a alt="unknown.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40088/unknown.jpg">
 <img alt="unknown" class="alignnone wp-image-41984 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="41984" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="unknown" data-recalc-dims="1" height="200" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40088/unknown.jpg" width="200"/>
 </a>


 The pollen seemed small and irregular shaped though if you look hard, you can see some evidence of them being
 <a alt="20666" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40088/20666">
 tricolpate
 </a>
 . The teachers told me the name of the tree — but I didn’t write it down. Will have to find out next time I visit again next month!


 Marudam Farm School is run by a non-profit organization,
 <a href="http://www.theforestway.org/">
 The Forest Way
 </a>
 , that in involved, among other things, in afforestation of the
 <a alt="data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x3bacbfc9962f3a07:0x94a2f6f5f7eb407!8m2!3d12.18!4d79.04!5m1!1e4" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40088/data%3D%213m1%214b1%214m5%213m4%211s0x3bacbfc9962f3a07%3A0x94a2f6f5f7eb407%218m2%213d12.18%214d79.04%215m1%211e4">
 Arunachala hill
 </a>
 . Students have already been monitoring the flora and fauna on the hill on weekly basis and I hope that Foldscoping can be a interesting addition to their ongoing observations.

Marudam Farm School: teachers workshop

In early June, I was visiting family in
 <a alt="data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x3bae1670c9b44e6d:0xf8dfc3e8517e4fe0!8m2!3d12.9715987!4d77.5945627" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/data%3D%213m1%214b1%214m5%213m4%211s0x3bae1670c9b44e6d%3A0xf8dfc3e8517e4fe0%218m2%213d12.9715987%214d77.5945627">
 Bengaluru
 </a>
 . Located at almost the same latitude as hot and salty
 <a alt="data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x3a5265ea4f7d3361:0x6e61a70b6863d433" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/data%3D%214m2%213m1%211s0x3a5265ea4f7d3361%3A0x6e61a70b6863d433">
 Chennai
 </a>
 , Bengaluru’s elevation of about 900m above sea level, makes it possible to have pretty home gardens and lovely public parks, earning it the description of the Garden City of India.  So I took a break from all the pollen from trees to sample pollen from Bengaluru garden plants.


 I started with 2 very common flowering garden shrubs:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=62153">
 <img alt="IMG_20180610_171416531_HDR" class="alignnone wp-image-62153 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="62153" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528650856","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"200","shutter_speed":"0.01","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180610_171416531_HDR" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/IMG_20180610_171416531_HDR.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=62156">
 <img alt="IMG_20180610_173256769_HDR" class="alignnone wp-image-62156 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="62156" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528651977","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"3200","shutter_speed":"0.076923076923077","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180610_173256769_HDR" data-recalc-dims="1" height="231" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/IMG_20180610_173256769_HDR.jpg" width="307"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=62158">
 <img alt="templetree" class="alignnone wp-image-62158 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="62158" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="templetree" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/templetree.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>
 Temple tree (
 
 Plumeria
 
 spp.)


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=62154">
 <img alt="IMG_20180610_171442469_HDR" class="alignnone wp-image-62154 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="62154" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528650882","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"125","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180610_171442469_HDR" data-recalc-dims="1" height="175" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/IMG_20180610_171442469_HDR.jpg" width="233"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=62155">
 <img alt="IMG_20180610_172229186" class="alignnone wp-image-62155 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="62155" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528651349","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"3200","shutter_speed":"0.076923076923077","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180610_172229186" data-recalc-dims="1" height="173" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/IMG_20180610_172229186-1.jpg" width="231"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=62157">
 <img alt="red" class="alignnone wp-image-62157 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="62157" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="red" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/red.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>
 
 Ixora coccinea
 


 Here’s this strange looking flower called
 <a href="https://indiabiodiversity.org/observation/show/1806434">
 Golden Shrimp
 </a>
 and it pollen:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=61992">
 <img alt="IMG_20180610_101610227" class="alignnone wp-image-61992 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="61992" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528625770","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"100","shutter_speed":"0.0032679738562092","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180610_101610227" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/IMG_20180610_101610227.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=61991">
 <img alt="gshrimp" class="alignnone wp-image-61991 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="61991" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="gshrimp" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/gshrimp.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>
 (
 
 Pachystachys lutea
 
 )


 (You can see different sized pollen but I suspect there are in different stages of dessication.)


 While the flowers looked very much like the common
 <a alt="52318" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/52318">
 Kanakambram
 </a>
 , it turns out that they
 <a alt="names" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/names">
 may not be that closely related
 </a>
 , although they do both come under
 <a alt="20878" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/20878">
 Acanthaceae
 </a>
 . Among other characteristics, this group has petals that are fused into a tube (or “sympetalous corollas”).


 There was also this cute purple flower with purple stamens. You can see various stages of dessication of the pollen grains here too.


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=62159">
 <img alt="IMG_20180611_075657206" class="alignnone wp-image-62159 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="62159" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528703817","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"160","shutter_speed":"0.02","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180611_075657206" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/IMG_20180611_075657206.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=62161">
 <img alt="purple" class="alignnone wp-image-62161 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="62161" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="purple" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/purple.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>


 And this plant which has these tiny flower-like things at its leaf node:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=62160">
 <img alt="IMG_20180611_075805836" class="alignnone wp-image-62160 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="62160" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528703885","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"125","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180611_075805836" data-recalc-dims="1" height="225" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/IMG_20180611_075805836.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=62162">
 <img alt="unknown" class="alignnone wp-image-62162 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="62162" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="unknown" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/unknown.jpg" width="272"/>
 </a>


 (But I’m not really sure they are flowers. Anyone knows?)


 There was also this other strange red flower hanging close by. It’s common name is Hanging Lobster Claw and is a
 <a href="https://indiabiodiversity.org/observation/show/1806467">
 
 Heliconia
 
 species
 </a>
 . Here is the dissected floret and its pollen:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=62036">
 <img alt="IMG_20180610_162813632" class="alignnone wp-image-62036 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="62036" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528648093","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"500","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180610_162813632" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/IMG_20180610_162813632.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=62039">
 <img alt="IMG_20180610_164546069_HDR" class="alignnone wp-image-62039 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="62039" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528649146","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"3200","shutter_speed":"0.076923076923077","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180610_164546069_HDR" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/IMG_20180610_164546069_HDR.jpg" width="400"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=62035">
 <img alt="Hrostrata" class="alignnone wp-image-62035 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="62035" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="Hrostrata" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/Hrostrata.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>


 (Some of them almost look triangular, maybe that where the single pore is?)


 There was also this pretty plant with spirally arranged l eaves commonly known as the Insulin plant that was flowering:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=62020">
 <img alt="IMG_20180610_125505880" class="alignnone wp-image-62020 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="62020" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528635306","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"160","shutter_speed":"0.01","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180610_125505880" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/IMG_20180610_125505880.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=62021">
 <img alt="IMG_20180610_130030207" class="alignnone wp-image-62021 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="62021" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528635630","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"1250","shutter_speed":"0.076923076923077","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180610_130030207" data-recalc-dims="1" height="299" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/IMG_20180610_130030207.jpg" width="399"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=62030">
 <img alt="insulinplant" class="alignnone wp-image-62030 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="62030" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="insulinplant" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/insulinplant.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>
 (
 
 Chamaecostus cuspidatus
 
 )


 It’s a monocot (as you maybe able to tell from the venation in the leaves) and closely related to ginger (family:
 <a alt="21339" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/21339">
 Zingiberaceae
 </a>
 ) although they have been given their own family
 <a alt="21339" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/21339">
 Costaceae
 </a>
 now. Much like the other Zingiberanae flowers I looked at (
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=37606">
 Banana
 </a>
 and the previous
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=40086">
 
 Heliconia
 
 species
 </a>
 ), the flowers and pollen are sticky.


 There were also a few lilies growing near by, so I got some (white and stringy looking) pollen from its anther too:


 <a alt="IMG_20180610_141828633.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/IMG_20180610_141828633.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_20180610_141828633" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-62052 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="62052" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528640308","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"125","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180610_141828633" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/IMG_20180610_141828633.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>
 <a alt="peacelily.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/peacelily.jpg">
 <img alt="peacelily" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-62053 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="62053" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="peacelily" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/peacelily.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://indiabiodiversity.org/observation/show/1806465">
 Peace Lily (
 
 Spathiphyllum wallisii
 
 )
 </a>


 While a rose (maybe) is a rose, as I have noted in
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=40086">
 an earlier post
 </a>
 , ‘lily’ is not always a lily. Just like the Easter ‘lily’ (subtribe:
 <a alt="21333" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/21333">
 Asparagales
 </a>
 ), the Peace ‘lily’ is also not botanically a lily — but from another, different, non-
 <a alt="21332" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/21332">
 Liliales
 </a>
 order called
 <a alt="21329" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/21329">
 Alismatanae
 </a>
 . In fact, Alismatanae along with another order,
 <a alt="21330" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/21330">
 Aranae
 </a>
 , make up the aroids, a basal monocot group. Many of these plants are highly specialized to their environment and according to the
 <a alt="phylogeny.html" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/phylogeny.html">
 TOL
 </a>
 page: “these features are reductions in form which have confounded attempts at phylogenetic resolution for the group”.


 There is a ‘grade’ (group of taxa),
 <a alt="Lilioid_monocots" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_40095/Lilioid_monocots">
 Lilioid monocots
 </a>
 , which apparently includes our Easter Lily but not this Peace Lily? There seems to have been a recent re-classification of these groups based on molecular phylogenetics which makes it more accurate but also invariably more complicated 🙁 (I’ll try to read more about the different types of ‘lilies’ and write a separate post about it soon.)


 PS – Check out a full list of pollen I’ve looked at here:

<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="fB95FgHFOL">
 
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=37651">
 Pollen list
 </a>
 
</blockquote>

 <iframe class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="fB95FgHFOL" frameborder="0" height="338" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" sandbox="allow-scripts" scrolling="no" security="restricted" src="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=37651&amp;embed=true#?secret=fB95FgHFOL" style="position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);" title="“Pollen list” — Microcosmos" width="600">
 </iframe>

Garden city pollen

(I’m trying to catch up on a long list of posts that I have been meaning to write. So here goes a the first of the shower of posts.)


 A couple of months ago (May/June) as I was running errands around my neighborhood and I noticed these three trees in bloom, all with purple flowers so I picked up one of each so that I could get home and reward myself to a Foldscope session 🙂


 Here are the three trees in bloom:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=61844">
 <img alt="IMG_20180528_173145695" class="alignnone wp-image-61844 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="61844" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1527528705","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"100","shutter_speed":"0.0032679738562092","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180528_173145695" data-recalc-dims="1" height="225" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_41178/IMG_20180528_173145695.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=61847">
 <img alt="IMG_20180613_170404396" class="alignnone wp-image-61847 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="61847" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528909444","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"250","shutter_speed":"0.03030303030303","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180613_170404396" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_41178/IMG_20180613_170404396.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=61846">
 <img alt="IMG_20180613_165529214" class="alignnone wp-image-61846 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="61846" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528908929","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"100","shutter_speed":"0.0077519379844961","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180613_165529214" data-recalc-dims="1" height="225" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_41178/IMG_20180613_165529214.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>


 And here are their respective flowers up close:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=61845">
 <img alt="IMG_20180528_193937311_LL" class="alignnone wp-image-61845 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="61845" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1527536377","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"2000","shutter_speed":"0.076923076923077","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180528_193937311_LL" data-recalc-dims="1" height="225" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_41178/IMG_20180528_193937311_LL.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=61848">
 <img alt="IMG_20180613_185907398" class="alignnone wp-image-61848 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="61848" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528916347","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"2500","shutter_speed":"0.076923076923077","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180613_185907398" data-recalc-dims="1" height="225" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_41178/IMG_20180613_185907398.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=61849">
 <img alt="IMG_20180613_190046410" class="alignnone wp-image-61849 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="61849" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528916446","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"3200","shutter_speed":"0.076923076923077","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180613_190046410" data-recalc-dims="1" height="225" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_41178/IMG_20180613_190046410.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>


 Here’s what their pollen looks like:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=61852">
 <img alt="tabebuia" class="alignnone wp-image-61852 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="61852" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="tabebuia" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_41178/tabebuia.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=61850">
 <img alt="kigelia" class="alignnone wp-image-61850 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="61850" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="kigelia" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_41178/kigelia.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=61851">
 <img alt="lagerstroemia" class="alignnone wp-image-61851 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="61851" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="lagerstroemia" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_41178/lagerstroemia.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>


 I didn’t really know the common or species name for any of them, so I posted them on
 <a href="https://indiabiodiversity.org/">
 India Biodiversity Portal
 </a>
 and sure enough, there seems to be a consensus:
 <a href="https://indiabiodiversity.org/observation/show/1806955">
 Purple flower 1
 </a>
 is
 
 Tabebuia spp.
 
 ,
 <a href="https://indiabiodiversity.org/observation/show/1806951">
 Purple flower 2
 </a>
 is
 
 Kigelia
 
 africana
 
 
 and
 <a href="https://indiabiodiversity.org/observation/show/1806952">
 Purple flower 3
 </a>
 is
 
 
 Lagerstroemia reginae
 
 
 .


 A little more digging on the internet led me to something pretty interesting. These 3 purple flower trees, flowering in Chennai around the same time, are from different continents!


 
 Tabebuia
 
 species are native to the American tropics and subtropics,
 
 Kigelia
 
 is native to Africa (as its specific name suggests) and the
 
 Lagerstroemia
 
 is native to the Indian subcontinent. (In fact, according to the Wikipedia page for
 <a alt="Lagerstroemia" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_41178/Lagerstroemia">
 
 Lagerstroemia
 
 </a>
 : “The genus is named after the Swedish merchant Magnus von Lagerström, a director of the Swedish East India Company who supplied Carl Linnaeus with plants he collected” and these plants now grow in warmer regions all over the world.)


 Here are 3 different trees within a 2km radius, which are from 3 different continents! I have been meaning to post here to start collaborations with people in the DBT Foldscope program– and I think this is a great excuse. Many of our cities and towns have the similar species of trees that are growing in widely different types of climate. It would be great to investigate their yearly life cycles — both macroscopically and microscopically. When do they flower/fruit? Are there differences in the way the pollen looks? Do they have the same density of stomata? Is their branching pattern different?  Do they harbor different types of mites or other funal pathogens? These some of the things I have been looking at with students from a few schools in both rural and urban Tamil Nadu.


 I’m currently looking for people/schools part of the DBT Foldscope program from the north-eastern states who are interested to collaborate and share data on some of these botanical topics — please do reply below so we can take this forward…


 PS – Check out a full list of pollen I’ve looked at here:

<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="wqYd1dZynO">
 
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=37651">
 Pollen list
 </a>
 
</blockquote>

 <iframe class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="wqYd1dZynO" frameborder="0" height="338" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" sandbox="allow-scripts" scrolling="no" security="restricted" src="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=37651&amp;embed=true#?secret=wqYd1dZynO" style="position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);" title="“Pollen list” — Microcosmos" width="600">
 </iframe>

3 Purple flowers

At the end of
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=40095">
 a morning Foldscoping
 </a>
 , I noticed a large closed bud (you can see one more in the background if you look carefully).


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=62173">
 <img alt="IMG_20180610_144139842_HDR" class="alignnone wp-image-62173 size-large gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="62173" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528641700","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"125","shutter_speed":"0.02","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180610_144139842_HDR" data-recalc-dims="1" height="1024" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_62177/IMG_20180610_144139842_HDR.jpg" width="768"/>
 </a>


 This is the night blooming Bhramha Kamal (not to be confused with another completely unrelated
 <a alt="Saussurea_obvallata" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_62177/Saussurea_obvallata">
 flower in the Himalayas
 </a>
 with the same name). So I waited till the night, and sure enough, there was this lovely bloom:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=62170">
 <img alt="IMG_20180610_220116328" class="alignnone wp-image-62170 size-large gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="62170" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528668076","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"3200","shutter_speed":"0.076923076923077","title":"","orientation":"1"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180610_220116328" data-recalc-dims="1" height="750" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_62177/IMG_20180610_220116328.jpg" width="1000"/>
 </a>


 You can see three of them in the image above. Here is a close up view of the stunning flower:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=62171">
 <img alt="IMG_20180610_220205216" class="alignnone wp-image-62171 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="62171" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528668125","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"3200","shutter_speed":"0.076923076923077","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180610_220205216" data-recalc-dims="1" height="225" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_62177/IMG_20180610_220205216.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=62172">
 <img alt="IMG_20180610_220420022" class="alignnone wp-image-62172 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="62172" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528668260","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"3200","shutter_speed":"0.076923076923077","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180610_220420022" data-recalc-dims="1" height="225" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_62177/IMG_20180610_220420022.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>
 (
 <a href="https://indiabiodiversity.org/observation/show/1806466">
 
 Epiphyllum oxypetalum
 
 </a>
 )


 There’s a small flower-like thing inside the flower which is the stigma. Anthers are many, with lots of large pollen that looks like this:


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=62167">
 <img alt="bkamal" class="alignnone wp-image-62167 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="62167" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="bkamal" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_62177/bkamal.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>


 (The pollen grains have a beautiful greenish-purple hue that my phone camera refused to do justice to…)


 The flower wilts by morning and ends up like this (although the pollen is still abundant):


 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=62168">
 <img alt="IMG_20180610_142436737_HDR" class="alignnone wp-image-62168 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="62168" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528640677","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"125","shutter_speed":"0.01","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180610_142436737_HDR" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_62177/IMG_20180610_142436737_HDR.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?attachment_id=62169">
 <img alt="IMG_20180610_142514206_HDR" class="alignnone wp-image-62169 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="62169" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Moto G (5S)","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1528640714","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.59","iso":"100","shutter_speed":"0.0070921985815603","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_20180610_142514206_HDR" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_62177/IMG_20180610_142514206_HDR.jpg" width="225"/>
 </a>


 This dramatically flowering plant is a Cactus! Cacti flowers typically have many stamens and a branched stigma just like this one. Cacti are Eudicots and therefore its pollen should be tricolpate — but the furrows in the pollen coat aren’t obvious here. Then I found these really cool SEM
 <a alt="302097" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_62177/302097">
 images of another
 
 Epiphyllum
 
 species
 </a>
 on
 <a href="https://www.paldat.org/">
 PalDat
 </a>
 showing the detailed furrows as well as a dessicated pollen grain with more obvious colpi.


 In previous posts and comments, I have suggested that variation in pollen size/shape could be a result of hydration state. Here that difference seems quite marked. I have saved many of my pollen slides — I am considering going back to them to look at them after dessication. Alternately, as suggested in
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=51310">
 Kim Weirich’s post
 </a>
 , one can also experiment with treating fresh pollen with different types of solutions. Considering pollen is physically resistant enough to show up in fossil records, perhaps we can think of experiments to explore the conformational changes they undergo in different micro environments using Foldscopes?


 In the meantime, here’s an interesting fact I learnt: all
 <a alt="Rhipsalis_baccifera" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_62177/Rhipsalis_baccifera">
 except ONE
 </a>
 species of Cacti are native to the Americas!


 PS – Check out a full list of pollen I’ve looked at here:

<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="PYOvON5LJ2">
 
 <a href="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=37651">
 Pollen list
 </a>
 
</blockquote>

 <iframe class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="PYOvON5LJ2" frameborder="0" height="338" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" sandbox="allow-scripts" scrolling="no" security="restricted" src="https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=37651&amp;embed=true#?secret=PYOvON5LJ2" style="position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);" title="“Pollen list” — Microcosmos" width="600">
 </iframe>

varuni P

Earth

Posts

Dancing Diatom @ICGEB, Delhi

Karuvaipillai Pollen

Seethaphazam pollen

Sea urchin spike

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Foldscope Lens Magnification