Morning Glory pollen. Coloured scanning electron micrograph of a pollen grain of the Morning Glory plant, Ipomoea learii. The grain has a highly sculpted outer wall (exine) with crater-like germinal pores surrounded by spine-covered ridges. The spines enable the pollen to adhere to the body hairs of insects & so be transferred to other flowers. When the pollen grain, containing male gametes, lands on the stigma of a flower, it germinates. A pollen tube grows out of one of the pores, down through the stigma, to the ovary. The male nuclei pass down the tube, fertilize the ovules and a seed is formed. Magnification: x310 at 6x7cm size. x1030 at 10x8"~PORTRAIT"