Rosebay Willowherb

One warm June evening I was walking in my local park and in the distance I noticed two dense clumps of pinkish-purple flowers in the distance along the edge of the park. I thought they were foxgloves until I took a closer look. Back home I found they were Rosebay Willowherb. There are plenty of them in our local parkland all well over a metre tall. Rosebay Willowherb used to be scarce but is now common on open grassland and waste ground and thrives where the ground has been disturbed.

Rosebay Willowherb 10x Meiji EMT microscope, IPhone 5s

Immature Anthers 65x Meiji EMT , IPhone5s , 2 images stacked.

 You can see the line along the length of the anther where it will split open as it matures to reveal the pollen hidden inside.

Anthers and Pollen 65x Meiji EMT , IPhone5s

 The anthers here are loaded with white pollen and you can see the roughly triangular shape of individual  grains.

Anthers and Pollen 100x Apex Researcher, Canon 550d DLSR, 38 images stacked PS5

Anthers and Pollen 100x Apex Researcher, Canon 550d DLSR, 44 images stacked PS5

The close up pictures above show a bluish tinge to the pollen on purple anthers.

Rosebay Willowherb Pollen 200x Apex Researcher, Canon 550d DLSR, 21 images stacked PS5.

 Pollen 200x with bright field illumination shows detail of the surface structures and connecting threads.

Rosebay Willowherb Pollen 200x Apex Researcher, Canon 550d DLSR, LED light, 24 images stacked PS5.

 The same group of pollen grains using an LED photo light showing the bluish colour of the pollen grains.

Rosebay Willowherb Pollen 400x Apex Researcher, Canon 550d DLSR, 21 images stacked PS5.

400x magnification shows three dimensional shape and surface details including dome shaped lobes.