Pollenatlas

species: Calluna vulgaris (Heather)
plant family: Ericaceae
at aerobiological analyses usually achieved determination level: Calluna

photos: Landesagentur für Umwelt, Bozen (Italy)

description:
outline: tetrade, often all four monads are arranged in one single layer
size: 38 (30-46) µm
apertures: (tri)-tetracolporate monads with short, barely visible colpi
pollen wall: exine verrucate, intine thin
note: Calluna can be easily separated from other Ericaceae pollen due to its form and exine sculpture

remarks to the plant:
Heather is a low growing shrubby bush, commonly found in peaty and acid soils from the Mediterranean to the Arctic Circle. It may grow even at altitudes of 2500 m in the Alps. Often it is is the dominant species over large areas. In contrary to other heathers (Erica spp.), it has separate petals instead of tubular urn-like flowers of fused petals. Flowering time is July to October.

species: Carex sp. (Sedge)
plant family: Cyperaceae
at aerobiological analyses usually achieved determination level: Cyperaceae

photos: Landesagentur für Umwelt, Bozen (Italy)

description:
outline: anisopolar pollen, circular in (the rare) polar view, in equatorial view egg- or pear-shaped
size: polar axis: 39.7 (37-43) µm; biggest diameter at the base: 29.0 (27-31) µm
apertures: periporate pollen with four, hardly visible germination areas (sometimes also described as inaperturate)
pollen wall: exine scabrate with more or less circular, blurred openings of the ektexine (lacunae). Three of them are arranged in the equatorial zone, one is placed at the apex (distal pole). They appear verrucate in top view. Intine thick, often thicker at the corners and at the proximal (the slimmer) pole.
note: finely granulated plasma

remarks to the plant:
Numerous species of this wind pollinated genus are widespread all over the world. They grow in all altitudes, preferably on moist or wet soils. Characteristic for the sedges is their stalk with triangular cross section. Flowers are almost in all cases monoecic. The inflorescence is a single terminal spike or cluster of spikes, each spike comprised of spikelets, each spike having a leaf-like bract; the flowers are often arranged spirally around the axis. Depending on the species, the flowering time covers spring and summer.

species: Carpinus betulus
plant family: Corylaceae
at aerobiological analyses usually achieved determination level: Carpinus, Corylaceae

photos: Landesagentur für Umwelt, Bozen (Italy)

description:
outline: more or less circular in polar view, in equatorial view circular to elliptical, slightly oblate
size: polar axis: 33.8 (29.7-35.6) µm, equatorial axis: 35.5 (30.7-41.5) µm
apertures: mostly tetra- or penta-, seldom also tri- or hexa- zonoporate. Pori about 3 µm in diameter with slightly protruding rims, vaguely expressed vestibulum, and sometimes bearing tiny, hardly visible opercula.
pollen wall: thin, psilate or scabrate exine, thin intine which thickens towards the apertures to convex, about 5-7 µm wide onci.
additional attribute: subtle granular plasma.
note: similar pollen grain: Ostrya

remarks to the plant:
Hornbeam is a deciduous tree of the colline (seldom also montane) level, which prefers fresh and humid, nutrious soils. Often it grows with several evenly sized trunks. Male and female inflorescences appear simultaneously with bud break in April/May. Male flowers are arranged to elongated, pendulous catkins, whilst the female flowers are much shorter, stretching later during seed maturation to up to 15 cm long spikes.

species: Castanea sativa (Sweet Chestnut, Spanish Chestnut)
plant family: Fagaceae
at aerobiological analyses usually achieved determination level: Castanea, (Fagaceae)

photos: Landesagentur für Umwelt, Bozen (Italy)

description:
outline: in polar view (seldom seen) circular or slightly triangular, side view elliptical.
size: polar axis: 18.8 (14-16) µm, equatorial axis: 13.6 (13-14) µm.
apertures: tri-zono-colporate with narrow, acute colpi.
pollen wall: thin, psilate exine. Intine faintly thickened underneath the colpi.

remarks to the plant:
Supposedly Castanea sativa originates from South-Western Asia. Growing in the colline, less frequent in the montane level, it prefers areas of mild winters and poorly nutrient soils, deficient in lime. This deciduous tree has lanceolate, spiny-serrate leathery leaves. The unisexual inflorescences appear after bud braek in June-July. Male flowers appear in long, thin, yellow-green catkins, up to 18 cm long, spreading or trooping. Female flowers are placed in groups of 2-3 mostly on the base of male inflorescences. Castanea shows both characteristics of anemophile and entomophile flowers. Flowers are mainly visited by beetles, but after a while the pollen becomes dry and airborne.
The familiar brown fruits are surrounded by a very spiny shell.

species: Casuarina sp. (Australian Pine, Casuarina)
plant family: Casuarinaceae
at aerobiological analyses usually achieved determination level: Casuarina, Casuarinaceae

photos: Landesagentur für Umwelt, Bozen (Italy)

description:
outline: in polar view circular or triangular, side view elliptical or circular.
size: polar axis: 25 (24-27) µm, equatorial axis: 29.8 (28-33) µm.
apertures: triporate, seldom tetraporate with protruding pori. Diameter of pori about 2-3 µm.
pollen wall: thin, scabrate exine, annularly thickened around the pori. Intine thin, thickening underneath the pori (onci).
remark: similar pollen like Corylus, Ostrya, Carpinus

remarks to the plant:
Evergreen, conifer-like trees and shrubs, originating from Australia and the Pacific Islands. Those elegant, fast growing plants reside in various habitats from semi-deserts to swamps and are commonly grown in Mediterranean climates (especially Southern Spain) as ornamentals and for donating shade. Most of the species hold nitrogen-fixing micro-organisms in their roots. Leaves are reduced to tiny scales. Small, sepal-less flowers stand in cone-shaped wind-pollinated spikes. Flowering time is diferent in various species: Casuarina equisetifolia flowers in late winter and spring, main flowering time of Casuarina cunninghamiana is in autumn (September to November).

species: Cedrus sp. (Cedar)
plant family: Pinaceae
at aerobiological analyses usually achieved determination level: Cedrus, Pinaceae

photos: Landesagentur für Umwelt, Bozen (Italy)

description:
outline: elongated elliptical central body, with two lateral air bladders (sacchi). Sacchi are not or insignificantly protruding in shape from the central body, forming half of a globe or less.
size: 75.2 (69.2-79.1) µm (longest diameter, measured with air bladders).
apertures: inaperturate (sulcate ?)
pollen wall: central body: rugulate exine; thick at the proximal pole; thickest at the area of insertion of the air bladders. Intine thick. Air bladders: thin pollen wall with wide, irregular reticulate structure, often hardly visible due to air inside the sacchi (appearing black).
additional attribute: granular plasma.
note: similar pollen: Picea, Pinus, Podocarpus, Abies

remarks to the plant:
A tall evergreen coniferous tree, frequently used as an ornamental plant in gardens and parks. Native from areas of the southern and south-eastern Mediterranean and the Himalaya. Atlas Cedar (Cedrus atlantica), Himalaya Cedar (C. deodara), and Cedar of Lebanon (C. libani) are the most common species. Male inflorescences are upright, cylindric and about 5 cm long. The small female inflorescences are egg-shaped. They are composed of numerous rounded scales. Flowering time of the different species expands from September to November.

species: Celtis australis (Nettle Tree, Hackberry)
plant family: Ulmaceae
at aerobiological analyses usually achieved determination level: Celtis, Ulmaceae

photos: Landesagentur für Umwelt, Bozen (Italy)

description:
outline: irregular circular to elliptical
size: polar axis: 30.8 (27-35) µm, very changeable
apertures: tri- to penta-zonoporate, pori about 2-3 µm wide, with dots of remnants from the exine.
pollen wall: thin, scabrate exine, thin intine, thickened to onci underneath the pori.
note: granular cytoplasm, containing numerous leucoplasts sized about 1-2 µm.

remarks to the plant:
Hackberry is a wind-pollinated Mediterranean tree or shrub, growing spontaneous on dry, rocky slopes on hot places. It is often planted as an ornamental as it is resistant to air pollution and long-living. Leaves are hairy on both sides, broad-lanceolate setose to caudate and clear serrate. Long-stalked inconspicious flowers open at the same time as leaves unfold from end of March to May. Male flowers appear in pauci-floral racemes, bisexual flowers stand singular basal next to the stem. A reddish-brown to black fruit contains a stone and (edible) fruit flesh.

species: Chenopodium album (Fat-hen)
plant family: Chenopodiaceae
at aerobiological analyses usually achieved determination level: Amaranthaceae/Chenopodiaceae group

photos: Landesagentur für Umwelt, Bozen (Italy)

description:
outline: circular
size: 26.9 (23-33) µm
apertures: periporate (pantoporate) pollen grain with numerous (about 30-70) pori, 1.5-2 µm diameter each. Membrane over the pori finely granulate.
pollen wall: scrabrate exine, 1-1.5 µm thick, with columellae; very thin intine
additional attribute: granulate cytoplasm
note: all plants of the Chenopodiaceae and Amaranthaceae families have similar pollen

The numerous, equally distributed pori remind of a golf ball.

remarks to the plant:
Lamb's Quarters is also known as Pigweed, Goosefoot, and Wild Spinach. It grows along waysides, bare waste ground, as a bad weed in gardens, fields, and cultivated land. Most frequently found on disturbed soils, it is also a pioneer plant on raw soils. The annual plant appears mealy. Leaves are very variable, typically widest at a point well below the middle, narrowing from there with two straightish untoothed sides to the V-shaped base, and with straightish toothed sides to the tip. Flowers in ball-like clusters, which are themselves arranged in spikes, and these in turn arranged in leafy super-spikes. Each flower has 5 green equal sepals, 5 yellow stamens and 2-3 styles. They appear from July to October.

species: Clematis alpina (Alpine Clematis)
plant family: Ranunculaceae
at aerobiological analyses usually achieved determination level: Clematis-group, Ranunculaceae

photos: Landesagentur für Umwelt, Bozen (Italy)

description:
outline: almost circular in polar view, in equatorial view circular to elliptical
size: polar axis: 22.4 (20-24) µm, equatorial axis 24 (22-25) µm
apertures: tricolpate, with long colpi, rounded at the ends, membrane of the colpi covered with thin dots of remnants from the exine
pollen wall: very thin, scabrate exine, intine as thin as the exine, thickened slightly underneath the colpi
note: similar pollen has Pulsatilla (bigger) and Anemone (also bigger than Clematis)

remarks to the plant:
The plant grows in bright forests, bushland, landfill sites, and on rocky places in the montane and subalpine zone. It is considered a central- to south European element. The climber has bipinnate trifoliate leaves and conspicious nodding bright-blue to violet-black flowers, sitting singular on long stalks. They appear from May to July.

species: Corylus avellana (Hazel)
plant family: Corylaceae
at aerobiological analyses usually achieved determination level: Corylus

photos: Landesagentur für Umwelt, Bozen (Italy)

description:
outline: rounded triangular in polar view, oval in equatorial view
size: polar axis: 27.3 (25-31) µm, equatorial axis: 28.9 (26-31) µm
apertures: triporate pollen, porus about 2-3 µm in diameter
pollen wall: thin, scabrate exine, thin intine with very large, convex germination areas (onci).
additional attribute: granular cytoplasma
remark: similar pollen: Ostrya

remarks to the plant:
Common and widespread on most soils from the lowlands up to the highland, in hedges, woods and scrub. Hazel is a familiar shrub, usually multi-stemmed. Leaves are ovate to rounded, sharply toothed, with a marked point, heart-shaped at the base. The yellow, pendulous male catkins open before leave bud break in early spring (sometimes even in December). Usually the flowering period is February to April, depending on temperatures. Female flowers are inconspicuous, resembling a fat bud with protruding red stigmata. Stamina and stigmata mostly open at differing times – this favours cross-fertilization.

species: Cupressus semperviens (Italian Cypress)
plant family: Cupressaceae
at aerobiological analyses usually achieved determination level: Cupressaceae

photos: Landesagentur für Umwelt, Bozen (Italy)

description:
outline: circular
size: 27.3 (24-32) µm
apertures: inaperturate pollen
pollen wall: very thin, gemmate exine, fine granular structures unevenly distributed on the surface of the pollen grain. Intine very thick (5-12 µm).
additional attribute: star-shaped cytoplasma
remark: similar pollen: Juniperus, Thuja, Chamaecyparis, Taxus. The tender exine easily bursts, giving way for the plasma to hatch from the grain. Both exines, broken exines, and plasma can be met separated in the microscopical slides.

remarks to the plant:
Cupressus is grown either in its characteristic slim upright, pyramidal form with symmetrical canopy, or in the pristine growth with horizontal branches. Its hard wood was used for sculptures already in the ancient times. Twigs and branches are covered with very simple, rhombic, dark-green scaly leaves. The monoecous flowers are placed on different twigs. Female flowers develop globulous, woody cones. Male flowers are placed on terminal ends of twigs in small, ovoid cones, turning yellow at pollination time. Cypress releases big masses of pollen into the air, mainly in the time between February and April.