Going through my piles of pollen work I found this beautiful enigma:
the pollen of Collomia grandiflora, Large-Leaved Collomia. Polemoniaceae.
I was given a couple of little pots of this lovely annual plant by my friend Marika, of EYA @enviroyouthalliance early last summer. I’d been looking for this plant for some time — it has that magic thing- blue pollen!
1. When I dissected a few of the blossoms from one of the floral clusters I was surprised to find that the pollen was not in fact blue, but purple!
Look at those gorgeous little spherical pollen grains!!
2: And yet when I looked at the photos of the plant, the pollen did indeed look blue. Enigma! A closer inspection revealed blue pollen with purple tones underneath, and I wonder if age of the pollen has anything to do with this colour variability? Of course, camera sensors affect the resulting colour images without a doubt, so more study needed this summer!
3: I made a pollen colour sample to add to my collection and included both the blue and the purple tones. This sample will have to do till I do more investigation.
4: Drawing of dissected blossom. A very cool thing — the calyces are covered in glandular hairs. It’s quite amazing. The blossom is so tiny, I was not able to discern or taste any nectar, so can’t confirm nor negate its presence.
5: A close-up of those crazy calyces.
I don’t have any photos of bees or other visitors on this Collomia and I wonder if any of you have photographed foragers on collomia?
#botanicallyinspired #pollinatorsandflowers #flowersforbeesherbarium #collomiagrandiflora #pollencolours #bluepollen
