Hypothesis & Procedure

Our Question:

How does the pollen size correlate with the size of the pollinator? 

Our Hypothesis:

We hypothesize that the size of the pollen correlates with the size of the pollinator; the bigger the pollinator the bigger the pollen.

Our Procedure:

1) We prepared our sample for the SEM with pollen from three different types of flowers. We used pollen from Bellis perennis (Common name: Daisy), Primula vulgaris (Primrose), and Delphinium straphisagria (Delphinium). We obtained the pollen from the flowers our teacher had brought to the classroom. 

2) We took 35x photographs using the Leica stereomicroscope. The images appeared on a computer screen in 3D and in color. We were lucky enough to be able to see what the pollen looked like on all three of our flowers.

3) Using a generic microscope, we attempted to view our pollen in a growth media solution. I brushed each pollen off, separately and put it on a slide. I then added 3 drops of the growth media solution which, is made of 0.1% Boric acid, 30% Sucrose and the rest water. However, we did not notice any significant growth. 

4) While working on the SEM, we focused on getting clear images of a single pollen for each of our flowers. We were looking for differences between the pollen including: size, texture, shape and number of apertures. We took many pictures at different zooms however, we made sure we had at least one 2000x picture of each different pollen.