Two pollen grains from our national flower, the wattle. The pollen's outer coat protects and helps deliver plant sperm to the ovum to make seeds that will grow into baby plants. The patterns on the pollen help us identify the plant it comes from.

Visualised using scanning electron microscopy by Dr Roger Heady, Australian National University. This image has been colour enhanced.

Size: each pollen grain is about 44 micrometres across.

This image was taken using the Cambridge S360 scanning electron microscope.