It can be easily collected from plants in flower boxes, gardens, lawns, and nature areas. See accompanying Student Data Sheet for procedures. Keep in mind that flowers may be contaminated with pollen from other species during the course of pollination.
Repetition is helpful.
All materials for this lab are easily obtained or produced. Not all pollen types will easily produce pollen tubes. It is important to test the pollen or to introduce this to the students as a lab in which you are finding out which pollen will form tubes. Fossil pollen grains are identifiable more than 100 million years after they were formed. Scientists study these grains to help determine the climate and ecology of past geological eras.