Tricolporate Pollen

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 three "colpus" (furrows) are clearly evident. The endexine forms a membrane over the pore and the ektexine terminates at the edge of the "colpus". The grain is "tectate", all three layers of the "ektexine" clearly evident. The "columella" (columns) visible by the shading in the ektexine layer. The shading extending into the endexine is actually the columns out of focus in the ektexine as the grain curves around above and below this plane of focus.