This is an image of pollen from an orange flower. The sample was collected at 3:00 PM on May 10, 2019 (Friday). It was obtained from a large patch of flowers located outside the south-house facing entrance of Page House on Caltech’s campus.

Many of the shrubs were blooming, producing large orange flowers with clear clusters of pollen in the center. I found one flower had opened completely, which made it easy to locate the stamens. A cluster of anthers that seemed most densely-covered with pollen was selected and carefully detached from the plant.

An image of the location where the sample was obtained is attached below.

In the next part of this post, I will be determining the species of plant that the pollen sample came from. Its most distinctive characteristics are the five brightly-colored orange petals. They are arranged around a darker orange-red center. There is also a stamen that has several clusters of pollen on it. By searching up the characteristics of this flower and comparing to pictures found on the internet, I was able to conclude that it is an orange hibiscus flower (rosa-sinensis).

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