Art or Science?: Fumaria Officinalis ... A Hidden Secret

In early spring I was out walking and collected some pollen samples from random flowers along the route that had started to bloom. When I got home I examined the samples under the microscope. Pollen fascinates me because of the great variety of shapes and sizes and I had started to work on photographic techniques to show individual shapes in 3d rather than the normal flat stained bright field images i'm used to seeing.

As I examined one particular specimen from a tiny purplish flower under low power I noticed as I focused in and out it seemed to have an extraordinary shape. I quickly increased the magnification up to 200x then 400x. Each pollen grain was spherical with six small dome shaped lobes stuck regularly around the body. It looked more like some alien craft or a space station out of Star Treck than a tiny grain of pollen!

Meanwhile I had identified the plant as Common Fumitory.The name is derived from Latin Fumaria Officinalis and means 'smoke of the earth'. If you pull the plant up the roots give off an acrid smell which has been compared to nitric acid fumes! When you see a whole bush of it, it does look a bit like smoke with its blue green colour.

I needed to get more samples but could not find the plant even though I carefully retraced my steps around the park and down along the old dry canal bed.I finally found the plant a few days later on the footpath of a bridge over the A38 dual carriageway! No surprises as Fumaria Officinalis (it's Latin name) is often found at roadsides and on disturbed ground. Several weeks later I found a large bush of the plant on the verge of Darnford Park car park.

Anyway back at the lab I tried taking dozens of images at different focus points at the highest magnification I've got - 1000x. Then I used stacking software, CombineZP, to merge them into one 3d image. I was happy with the results and I've posted them below. I also tried adding a bit of colour using Rheinberg filters.