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Hello,

I'm using a DIY air sampler to collect stuff from the air and play with things like pollen counts, air quality monitoring, etc. I found something interesting in today's sample:

http://avtanski.net/projects/air_sam...full/p0132.jpg

There are quite a few of those, but just one had this sprouting thing on it.

Do you have some idea what it might be?

Regards,

- Alex

Hi Alex,

Looks like a germinating pollen grain to me. Are there similar grains without the "radical"? if so try mounting them in a week sugar solution to see if they do the same (trouble is they need to be under a few hours old to do it ).

Good luck.

Peter.

Thanks Peter,

Yeah, i was thinking about the possibility of germinating pollen grain, but didn't consider it seriously for some reason. I was thinking pollen needs very special conditions to start germinating, and this thing I got from the air in this state.

In this sample I found a couple more of these things, but without the projection (or whatever this thing is called). I've never seen them before and they don't look like the typical wind-blown pollen to me - shape is kind of wrong, no visible apertures, no discernible exine sculpture, and also they look like have many smaller cells in them (hard to see on the image, and also barely discernible when looking directly through the scope, so I'm not sure about this last thing).

I will try your suggestion of putting some in sugar solution and see if they germinate. It will be a matter of luck though - I have to see if there will be some in the next sample, and if the glue on the sticky tape (this is what the air sample is using) doesn't damage them. But it is definitely worth a try.

Thanks for the idea,

- Alex

Hi Alex,

Another thought I had was it may be a germinating mold spore. I have never observed one of those so can not say, you could perhaps try cultivating them.

Peter.