DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10017447
title: Annotated dataset of pollen pellet images from 40 major beekeeping plants

description: Pollen is the main source of proteins, amino acids, lipids, sterols, fatty acids, vitamins and other nutrients for honeybees. Knowing the pollinating plants of an area and identifying the incoming pollen sources inside the hive can be extremely useful information for beekeepers in controlling the development of their colonies and implementing appropriate manipulations throughout the year. Thus, a database was created, including images and characteristics of the pollen pellets of 40 major beekeeping plants. Bee pollen was collected from pollen traps, which were placed at the hive entrances of experimental bee colonies.
Freshly collected pollen was cleaned of foreign matter and placed -18 oC in glass jars until the time of analysis. Every 15 days a representative sample of 10% of the total quantity was separated mainly by color, shape and size in order to assess the contribution of each species. For the identification of pollen grains, the Louveaux method was used, according to which a small amount of pollen was placed on a slide and the pellets were dissolved with 2-3 drops of diethyl ether. After evaporation of the solvent, a drop of aqueous isoglucose solution (2:1) was added to hydrate the pollen grains and a drop of alcoholic fuchsin solution was added to stain them. The preparations were then placed on a hot plate to evaporate the moisture. This was followed by placement of a coverslip with Entellan to fix the preparation. The final preparation was examined under the microscope to identify the plant from which the pollen pellet came. For the microscopic identification of the pollen types, the collection of reference slides from the Laboratory of Apiculture of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, which is accredited to ISO 17025:2017, was used. Pollen pellets from the various taxa were placed on a special white plate to ensure a neutral background and to limit possible reflections as much as possible. Photographs were taken with smartphone cameras, in order to simulate the actual conditions of photography for potential users in the field.
The dataset contains 139 training captured images of bee pollen pellets from 40 major beekeeping plants (class list can be found below) and 13 testing captured images. Polygon annotations were created using LabelMe software and saved in COCO Annotation format (train.json and val.json files).
Further information about the related project (SmartBeeKeep) can be found in the following article and presentation (please site if you use these data):

Vasilios Liolios, Dimitrios Kanelis, Maria-Anna Rodopoulou, Chrysoula Tananaki (2023). A Comparative Study of Methods Recording Beekeeping Flora. Forests, 14(8), 1677; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14081677 
Nikos Grammalidis, Andreas Stergioulas, Aggelos Avramidis, Konstantinos Karystinakis, Athanasios Partozis, Athanasios Topaloudis, Georgia Kalantzi, Chrisoula Tananaki, Dimitrios Kanelis, Vasilis Liolios, and Madesis Panagiotis "A smart beekeeping platform based on remote sensing and artificial intelligence", Proc. SPIE 12786, Ninth International Conference on Remote Sensing and Geoinformation of the Environment (RSCy2023), 127860C (21 September 2023); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2681866 Event: Ninth International Conference on Remote Sensing and Geoinformation of the Environment (RSCy2023), 2023, Ayia Napa, Cyprus Author preprint available
Annotation - Latin name
Anthemis - Anthemis sp.
Asphodelus - Asphodelus fistulosus
Brassica napus - Brassica napus
Castanea sativa - Castanea sativa
Cephalaria transsylvanica - Cephalaria transsylvanica
Chenopodium album - Chenopodium album
Cichorium - Cichorium intybus
Cistus - Cistus creticus
Cistus salvifolius - Cistus salvifolius
Convolvulus - Convolvulus arvensis
Daucus - Daucus carota
Echium - Echium plantagineum
Erica - Erica manipuliflora
Hedera helix - Hedera helix
Helianthus - Helianthus annuus
Heliotropium - Heliotropium europaeum
Hypericum - Hypericum perforatum
Lavandula - Lavandula angustifolia
Ligustrum - Ligustrum japonicum
Matricaria - Matricaria chamomilla
Olea_europaea_9cm - Olea europaea
Paliurus - Paliurus spina-christi
Papaver - Papaver rhoeas
Pinus - Pinus sp.
Polygonum_aviculare - Polygonum aviculare
Portulaca - Portulaca oleracea
Pyrus - Pyrus spinosa
Quercus - Quercus coccifera
Rosmarinus - Rosmarinus officinalis
Rubus - Rubus ulmifolius
Carduus - Silybum marianum
sinapis - Sinapis arvensis
Sonchus - Sonchus asper
Taraxacum - Taraxacum officinale
Tamarix - Tamarix sp.
Tilia - Tilia sp.
Tribulus - Tribulus terrestis
Trifolium pratensis - Trifolium campestre
Verbascum - Verbascum nigrum
Vicia - Vicia villosa