Basil Pollen

Applause IconAug 06, 2025 • 3:47 PM UTC
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Holly Stuart (Foldscope Team)

Education Specialist at Foldscope Instruments

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I missed a few days in my garden, and as a result, some of my basil plants began flowering.
When I saw that the anthers were fairly prominent on the flowers, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to find some pollen grains and look at them under my Foldscope.

I started with the 140X len and used brightfield, darkfield, and reflective lighting.
Then I moved to the 340X lens and it was beautiful! The intricate patterns on the surface of the basil pollen were a big surprise! It is hard to believe that so much detail can exist on such a tiny grain. For lighting I got the best picture of the detail on the grains using a desk lamp.
When I used the 2.0 LED light module and 340X lens, I observed the pollen with brightfield:
darkfield:
and reflective lighting:
I can't wait to see what other flowers pop up in my garden for me to observe!

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