This is an image of a hibiscus pollen grain sample taken with a Foldscope. The pollen grains are bright yellow, circular, and differed in size. They were carefully separated in order to see the grains clearly. The sample was taken at 2:00 PM on May 3, 2019 from a hibiscus flower next to Page House at Caltech.

The sample was obtained by directly tapping on the stamen of a flower to make the pollen fall directly on a glass slide. This ensured that our sample didn’t get contaminated by anything else in the environment. The plastic top slip was immediately placed above the pollen and taped down onsite.

The plant species of the pollen is Hibiscus rose-sinensis, or commonly known as Chinese hibiscus or shoeblackplant. After looking online, I discovered that if one took a careful scanning electron microscopy image of the pollen grains, they would find a spherical grain with numerous round tip spines. With further research online, I found out that this was a common feature for pollen of many plant species. This feature is likely advantageous to the plant because it allows the pollen grains to latch onto something while traveling to new destinations.

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