Come and explore the fascinating world of pollen with a brand new exhibition on display throughout the grounds of RHS Garden Harlow Carr, as we welcome you to this microscopic world of wonders.
Pollen is amazing. It's beautiful, nearly indestructible and unless it’s making you sneeze, you might not give it much thought, but it is so much more than a pesky allergen. Pollen can shed light on stories from history and honey to hay fever and horticulture, it’s critically important in our lives, the natural world, and the sciences which study it.
The brand new exhibition at RHS Garden Harlow Carr will bring visitors into pollen's microscopic world to help reveal the huge roles it plays in ours. With fascinating images and 3D-printed pollen models, we hope it will help visitors discover the wonder of pollen in new and memorable ways.
Displayed across eight panels throughout the garden, the 3D pollen models are produced using a technique called confocal laser scanning microscopy, which takes dozens of thin cross-section images through a pollen grain then uses them to reconstruct a model of its surface. These surface models can then be 3D-printed. The exhibition also showcases ultra-high-magnification images from scanning electron microscopy, developed for the PalDat project by the Society for the Promotion of Palynological Research in Austria.
This exhibition is a collaboration between the University of York and RHS Harlow Carr, supported in part by the Natural Environment Research Council. Researchers in the University's Department of Environment and Geography - Dr Oliver Wilson and Prof. Robert Marchant - have worked with the interpretation and education teams at RHS Harlow Carr to develop the material for the exhibition as well as a series of workshops for primary school children.
Dr Wilson will also be giving a talk entitled
'The Wonder of Pollen' to tie in with the exhibition on the 8 June at RHS Harlow Carr. The talk will shed light on the wonders of pollen's miniature world covering 450 million years of evolution, plants from across the tree of life and landscapes from around the planet.
