POTENTIAL OF BOTANIC GARDENS TO SHOW POLLEN BIODIVERSITY. THE MODENA PROJECT: 1. THE POLLEN FLORA OF THE GARDEN

Abstract

The paper kick-starts a multifaceted project set up in the Botanic Garden of Modena to acquaint people with pollen biodiversity, thanks to the know-how of the local Laboratory in several fields of Palynology. It concerns Morphopalynology and shows the work undertaken so far: 1) The “Botanic Garden Pollen Type Collection” was organized. About 150 pollen species have been collected so far and about 50 species have been acetolyzed and mounted on slides, which can also be exchanged; 2) The “Botanic Garden Pollen Flora”, i.e. the morphological description of pollen of the plants living in the Garden was begun. Six woody species have been described so far (Cupressus sempervirens; Juniperus x media “Pfitzeriana”, Thuja occidentalis, T. orientalis, Taxus baccata, Taxodium distichum); 3) Pollen protocols and materials for education and popularisation events were designed and in part already successfully employed in exhibitions for citizens, students from primary to secondary school, and tourists (pollen dust jars, three dimensional pollen models, big round panels with high magnification pollen photos hung from trees, pollen trips throughout the Garden, from microscopes to plants). Pollen proved to be a reliable protagonist to carry out an autarchic process in the Botanic Garden “from the Producer (Research) to the Consumer (People).