I heard water activates the pollen. Then if it’s not captured by the plant it dies in like a day. When the pollen toughes the moist pistils that activates it as well. At least that’s what I think I remember from somewhere.
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mmmmm! Yah I heard the pistil hydrates the pollen as well. I’ve got to dream up a scheme to video record pollination under the microscope. It’s so hard to set up I failed once already.
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I think trichomes are definitely putting out that signal. In the flash photo it seems like trichomes are definitely reflecting the light! I’m going to keep looking at this curious phenomenon! GOG is god-tier. lol!
“Your god is dead!” - my favorite line from the witcher 3.
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The function of pollen and stigma is a very interesting subject in its own right.
When you consider the vast varieties of plants using the same basic process and the fact that most don’t interfere with each other’s processes is mind boggling.
Keep working on that effort to capture the process, it will be amazing.
Cheers
G
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I was thinking the sparkle originated from these silver spheres. There’s nothing else I could see that was abnormal.
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There, I think this image captures the strange trichomes. See those white dots? Visually as you change the angle of the leaf for viewing, they flash and sparkle in the light, looking like spider mite bite marks. They look huge to the naked eye, and it’s really hard to understand they are like 80 micrometers across, yet still visible.
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ahh a study on leaves. Just gathering some data to see if those silver trichomes appear on any other plant. This is IPW leaf. I was checking for bugs!
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Sooo… at specific angles they are acting as retroreflectors (corner prisms)?
Does that suggest some crystallization? 
Cheers
G
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Usually only the caps on capitate trichomes sparkle because of the thc. So… there should be some THC in there??? hah hah no idea yet. It’s the color that’s really strange. They are almost silver, or something. Never seen that before!
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