POLLEN PILE
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Shoeblackplant (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis) – also colloquially called the ‘Rose of China’, ‘Hawaiian hibiscus’ and ‘rose mallow’ – produces thousands upon thousands of pollen grains in a single pinch of pollen powder. Pollen grains, seen here in purple, are the male reproductive cells of a plant. They form with a spiky, tough outer shell called the exine. This prickly casing allows the pollen grains to easily attach to the bodies of insect pollinators and survive the journey to another plant. If the pollen grain is successfully dispersed, it will fertilise the female reproductive cells in another plant’s ovules. Each of these grains is around 15 to 100 microns wide, snapped using a coloured scanning electron microscope.