for bullets to enable tracking them. Spiritual purposes In some Native American religions, pollen was used in prayers and rituals to symbolize life and renewal by sanctifying objects, dancing grounds, trails, and sandpaintings. It may also be sprinkled over heads or in mouths. Many Navajo people believed the body became holy when it traveled over a trail sprinkled with pollen. Pollen grain staining For agricultural research purposes, assessing the viability of pollen grains can be necessary and illuminating. A very common, efficient method to do so is known as Alexander's stain. This differential stain consists of ethanol, malachite green, distilled water, glycerol, phenol, chloral hydrate, acid fuchsin, orange G, and glacial acetic acid. In angiosperms and gymnosperms non-aborted pollen grain will appear red or pink, and aborted pollen grains will appear blue or slightly green. See also European Pollen Database Evolution of sex Honeybee starvation Pollen calendar Pollen count Pollen DNA barcoding Pollen source Polyphenol antioxidant References Bibliography External links Pollen and Spore Identification Literature Pollen micrographs at SEM and confocal microscope The flight of a pollen cloud PalDat (database comprising palynological data from a variety of plant families) Pollen-Wiki - A digital Pollen-Atlas, retrieved 9 February 2018. YouTube video of pollen clouds from Juncus gerardii plants Plant anatomy Plant morphology Pollination Allergology