Oregano Pollen

Applause IconJun 20, 2025 • 2:15 PM UTC
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Holly Stuart (Foldscope Team)

Education Specialist at Foldscope Instruments

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So far, this was the hardest pollen to access from my garden! The white oregano flowers are so very small and the stamen holding up the (very tiny!!) anther is extremely delicate.
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First I tried touching clear tape to the flower, but no matter how gently I did it, the entire anther came off and stuck to the tape. When I looked at the resulting slides under my Foldscope, all I could see were the anthers - no pollen. But, I persisted and finally got images where you can see the pollen grains at the very top of the pink anther. Enjoy!

These images were captured using the 140X magnification lens plus 5X digital zoom on my phone and reflective lighting (to let you see the pink of the anther).
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This is at 140X magnification lens plus 5X digital zoom on my phone and darkfield lighting
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Next I bumped up the magnification to 340X plus 5X digital zoom on my phone. Again, the pink anther was with reflective lighting and the others with darkfield lighting.
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Because I was getting more than just the pollen on the slide, I was also able to see some trichomes (tiny hairlike structures found on plants) from the oregano flower. All of these were at 140X magnification lens plus 5X digital zoom on my phone. The first two used darkfield lighting and the last two brightfield lighting.
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