POLLEN

Pollen is the male germ cell of flowering plants (angiosperms); its major use is to pollinate.

Pollen is the principal source of protein in the honeybee diet and contains:

When foraging, the bee alights on a flower and moving quickly bites the anthers of the stamen with her mandibles in order to dislodge the pollen grains. These pollen grains attach themselves to the plumose hairs which cover the whole of the bee. The bee then cleans the pollen from her body and loads it into her 'pollen baskets' which can be found on the back two of her six legs.

The pollen pellets are then deposited by the foraging bee in the cells of the comb in the hive. A house bee then comes along and mixes the pollen into a paste by adding nectar or honey to preserve it and it is now known as 'bee-bread' and is fed to the developing brood.

The honeybee provides a valuable service to agriculture by pollinating crops and research has shown that pollination by bees increases the yield and quality of produce.

Pollen comes in the most beautiful colours and shapes depending on the flower from which it was collected - why not look at a sample under a microscope - its quite fascinating to recognise pollen from a particular flower, for instance, pollen from heather has a most distinctive shape.