K ingdom : Plantae

Sub kingdom : Tracheobionta

Class : Magnoliopsida

Division : Magnoliophyta

Sub Class : Asteridae

Order : Scrophulariales

Family : Bignoniaceae

Genus : Tecoma

Species : stans

Duration : Perennial

Habitat : Tree, shrub

Yellow trumpetbush is an attractive plant that is cultivated as an ornamental . It is drought tolerant and grows well in warm climates. The flowers attract bees, butterflies and humming birds.

We have many beautiful flowers in our IISER Bhopal campus. We were very fascinated to observe pollen grains under foldscope. The pollen is a powdery substance containing the pollen grains and are present on the anther of a flower.

So here we go, we plucked few flowers from our campus . To transfer pollen to my sample, I tapped the anther lightly against a glass slide. Yellow pollen dusted the glass. Placing a coverslip on top of the pollen dust and applying pressure with my finger, I shifted the glass to spread the pollen in a thin layer and glued the coverslip in place. And I got to observe the pollen grains.

It is almost like an ellipse, but has pointy ends, this shape is called as tactoid.