Inside the Story · No. 04 · Thursday 1 October 2026 · Science · South Asia and Western

Six Flowers in One Speck of Dust

What does a flower leave behind?

The inside story of a design inspired by six kinds of pollen under an electron microscope.

Misc pollen (Dartmouth Botanical Pollen SEM, 12PollenMix), Dartmouth College Electron Microscope Facility (Louisa Howard, Charles Daghlian)

The source

Misc pollen (Dartmouth Botanical Pollen SEM, 12PollenMix)Scanning electron micrograph (Zeiss DSM 962 SEM), greyscale · Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, USADartmouth College Electron Microscope Facility (Louisa Howard, Charles Daghlian) · Pollen grains, scanning electron micrograph. Dartmouth College Electron Microscope Facility (Louisa Howard, Charles Daghlian). Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons, File:Misc_pollen.jpg. · object 12PollenMix · public_domainView at Dartmouth College Electron Microscope Facility (Louisa Howard, Charles Daghlian) ↗

A pinch of pollen from six garden plants, photographed with a scanning electron microscope at Dartmouth College. At this magnification every species wears a different surface: spines, cavities, a net, a smooth three-armed shell.

What we saw

Five parts, traced from the photograph

1The spiky sphereThe small spiky spheres are sunflower. Twenty-three of them in this one frame.

2The cavity sphereThe biggest grain is morning glory. Its surface is a net of cavities, each with a lighter disc at its centre.

3The netted beanLily is the bean. Its whole surface is a raised net. The caption puts one of these at about fifty micrometres long.

4The tripodOne grain has three arms. Primrose. There is only one of it in the whole image.

5The false-colour paletteThe microscope sees in grey. Someone gave each species a colour, and the colours made the picture famous.

5 prints, each from a different part

Each print starts from a part of the source

From this partThe spiky sphere

Print 1 · All-over

Sunflower Pollen Dot

Start with the small spiky ones. Sunflower.

Seven real grains, each kept spine for spine, become a polka dot.

Repeat: Half drop repeat · tile 2400 × 2400 px · 40.6 × 40.6 cm
Made for: Dress and kidswear labels
Why it sells: Seven real grains become a polka dot about 4 cm across on a 40 cm tile, a familiar dot scale for dresses and kidswear.

DresseskidswearThree colours

From this partThe cavity sphere

Print 2 · All-over

Morning Glory Honeycomb

Then the big one. Morning glory, and the cavities on its skin.

The centre of the grain, cut into hexagons, makes a honeycomb out of a honeycomb.

Repeat: Straight repeat · tile 2400 × 2771 px · 40.6 × 46.9 cm
Made for: Activewear and shirting brands
Why it sells: The real cavities of one grain, set on a hexagon lattice, read as an even textured honeycomb at shirt and activewear scale.

ActivewearshirtingTwo colours

From this partThe netted bean

Print 3 · All-over

Lily Bean Toss

The lily grains, with the net over every one.

Five real beans, tossed across the cloth.

Repeat: Half drop repeat · tile 2400 × 2400 px · 40.6 × 40.6 cm
Made for: Kurta and ethnic-wear labels
Why it sells: Five real grains, each about 7.5 cm long, tossed across the tile, make a conversational print at kurta scale.

KurtaFour colours

From this partThe tripod

Print 4 · Placement

Tripod Butti Scarf

And the one grain with three arms.

One grain becomes a butti, and its outline runs round the edge.

Repeat: Placement print, not a repeat
Made for: Scarf brands and accessory labels
Why it sells: One grain as a butti field, with its own outline as the border, fills a square scarf as a single placement.

Square scarfsingle placementSix colours

From this partThe false-colour palette

Print 5 · All-over

Pollen Palette

Last, the colours themselves.

The whole speck of dust, flattened into seven screen colours.

Repeat: Mirror repeat · tile 3684 × 2804 px · 62.4 × 47.5 cm
Made for: Resortwear labels
Why it sells: The whole speck of dust, flattened into seven screen colours and mirrored four ways, gives a colourful all-over for resort shirts and dresses.

Resort shirtsresort dressesSeven colours

The palette

Every colour here was already in the source. Only the ecru is ours.

#C9796ESunflower coral · from the source

#A94722Primrose brick · from the source

#B79B21Hollyhock ochre · from the source

#D8C85CCastor citron · from the source

#A7C684Morning glory mint · from the source

#4E811ELily leaf · from the source

#193F04Lily shadow · from the source

#0A0637Midnight · from the source

#F3EDE1Ecru · ours

Why now

Made for the spring and summer 2027 development window.

Previous storyThe Salt Pans of the Rann Next storyThe Tortoise Ferries the Monkey

Source: Misc pollen (Dartmouth Botanical Pollen SEM, 12PollenMix), Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA, Scanning electron micrograph (Zeiss DSM 962 SEM), greyscale. Dartmouth College Electron Microscope Facility (Louisa Howard, Charles Daghlian), Pollen grains, scanning electron micrograph. Dartmouth College Electron Microscope Facility (Louisa Howard, Charles Daghlian). Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons, File:Misc_pollen.jpg., object 12PollenMix. public_domain. View the object.

Facts from: commons.wikimedia.org.