MtA_BIOL2201_2026PollenUnderFoldscopeNoraMiller2
Mar 21, 2026 • 8:39 PM UTC
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nora
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With my foldscope I chose to look at pollen from a lily flower that I had in my house. I cut off an anther from the lily with scissors to easily put the pollen on the trading card. The pollen looked very red in person while on the anther but once I looked at it under the microscope it showed up to be yellow in colour. As well, the pollen looks like little dark dots when they fall from the flowers onto my desk but under the foldscope, they look super cool. They are all circular in shape with come of them being misshapen and almost broken looking. They are bright yellow in colour and have some darker yellow spots inside of them.
When I first saw it under the foldscope, I was a little surprised because I thought they would be red since that’s what I observed with my eye but in reality, they were yellow! It helped a lot to have a big clump of cells in the middle and some smaller groups of cells on the edge of the trading card to get a good look at the individual cells and clusters of them. I only had one type of flower to look at, so if I was to do this again, I would try and find another flower to contrast the characteristics of their pollen grains.
Pollen is very important in the life cycle and reproduction in flowers; it is also essential for many of the foods that we eat! Without pollen we could not have berries, and fruit or many of the foods that come from plants. We also could not have honey since bees are primary pollinators. Without pollinators, carrying pollen form plant to plant would become difficult for ecosystems to thrive! 🌸🌼🌷🌻🌺🌹
When I first saw it under the foldscope, I was a little surprised because I thought they would be red since that’s what I observed with my eye but in reality, they were yellow! It helped a lot to have a big clump of cells in the middle and some smaller groups of cells on the edge of the trading card to get a good look at the individual cells and clusters of them. I only had one type of flower to look at, so if I was to do this again, I would try and find another flower to contrast the characteristics of their pollen grains.
Pollen is very important in the life cycle and reproduction in flowers; it is also essential for many of the foods that we eat! Without pollen we could not have berries, and fruit or many of the foods that come from plants. We also could not have honey since bees are primary pollinators. Without pollinators, carrying pollen form plant to plant would become difficult for ecosystems to thrive! 🌸🌼🌷🌻🌺🌹
Some other cool samples I was able to look at under the foldscope is spores from a fern from the same bouquet of flowers and cells from an onion in my fridge!
The fern spore (first image below) is a spore from a sporous leaf on a fern. It is interesting because it looks like it is starting to develop as you can see the details in the spore. This is weird because my room should not be a good environment to start growing.
The onion cells (second image below) are very interesting because the cells have a wrinkled texture on them. This can be due to the onion being dried out and not have easy access to water, but it can also be due to the cell wall pulling away from the membrane.
The fern spore (first image below) is a spore from a sporous leaf on a fern. It is interesting because it looks like it is starting to develop as you can see the details in the spore. This is weird because my room should not be a good environment to start growing.
The onion cells (second image below) are very interesting because the cells have a wrinkled texture on them. This can be due to the onion being dried out and not have easy access to water, but it can also be due to the cell wall pulling away from the membrane.
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