Microscopic images of pollen grains
Compared to pollen grains as microfossils, seeds, which are usually only millimetres in size, are macroremains. While most plant remains are easily perishable, seeds, like pollen, are preserved over thousands of years under suitable conditions. In archaeological excavations, macroremains can therefore often be recovered as finds. Here, too, it is only possible to determine with certainty which plant species they come from by means of a comparative collection.
Motic / 2022
Microscopic images of pollen grains
Under the microscope, pollen grains show their diversity. Photographs are an important aid in determining the species, but two-dimensional images alone do not ultimately reveal all the three-dimensional details. In cases of doubt, direct comparison under the microscope with specimens from the collection is the only option.
Motic / 2022
Preparation box with pollen preparations
Pollen grains can be preserved for thousands of years in the absence of air. Their morphology can be used under the microscope (here a Zeis-Winkler from 1965) to determine the plant species from which they originate. To do this, one needs a comparative collection of pollen preparations (here starting with the Acanthaceae family) of known plant species. We have pollen from more than 3000 plant species from four continents in our collection, which began in 1883 and continues to this day.
To see details of the pollen grains they have to be viewed under the microscope. For this purpose, the pollen grains prepared from the stamens in the laboratory were embedded in glycerine gelatine and mounted on microscope slides. They are arranged according to families and genera and stored in specimen boxes.
The collection is continuously renewed and expanded, and is an important working basis for our current research on climate-induced vegetation change.
1884 - 2022
Microscope
Since pollen grains are only 0.02 - 0.1 mm in size, they cannot usually be seen with the naked eye. An exception is the so-called "sulphur rain", in which pollen grains appear in such quantities that they can be recognised as a yellowish deposit. To see details of the pollen grains, however, you need high-quality microscopes. After about 20 years they were replaced by new models.
Zeiss angle / 1965
Tree slice of a water pipe from Stralsund
Palynology literally means the study of "scattered dust" and on the stone exhibited here you can see what is meant. Pollen grains that have been washed together on the surface of the water cover this stone and make the tiny pollen grains, which are therefore actually invisible to the naked eye, visible as a "pollen lake bloom" due to the sheer quantity.
The tree slice shows what climate dynamics mean: depending on the environmental conditions, a specific width of the annual ring results for each year. The sequence of tree ring widths is characteristic and with its tree rings our collection goes back to the year 9300 BC. The tree slice exhibited here was part of a water pipe in Stralsund and the tree for it was felled 12 years after our university was founded.
ca. 1747
Collections of the Department of Palynology and Climate Dynamics
In the Department of Palynology and Climate Dynamics, pollen and spores are collected to research vegetation history. The collection is purely a research and teaching collection and is not exhibited.
The collections of the Department of Palynology and Climate Dynamics are divided into three sections: The department's comparative collections, the Dendrolab's collection and database of recent and subfossil wood, and the Willerding Palaeo-Ethnobotanical Collection.
