Periporate Pollen
Transmitted Oblique Brightfield Illumination

This pollen grain was recovered from honey sold as "Sweet Clover Honey". There was some sweet clover pollen but it was not the dominant pollen in this sample. This view is an optical section through the middle of the pollen grain. The grain is "echinate" (spiny). These spines are the sculptureing element on the surface of the "tectum, the outer layer of the "ektexine", which is the outer layer of the "exine". The "ektexine" here consists of the "tectum" supporting the spines, the "columella" (columns) supporting the tectum, and the "foot layer" that rests on the "endexine". The "endexine" is the slightly darker layer that can be seen just inside the "foot layer". On the right side of the image the thick dark band is the "columella" area of the "ektexine". It shows bright on the left side due to the use of oblique illumination. There are a few pores in focus in this section. The two most evident are the ones at just before the 8:00 and just after the 7:00 positions.