An artist's portrait of Charles Linné, father of taxonomy.

Precious information about environments and paleoenvironments can be gathered from pollen and spores because they are widespread and resistant to decay. For this matter, a fair amount of research has been done on organizing the grains into an extensive classification. This system helps palynologists reconstruct paleoenvironments and more specifically the floral elements. For the purpose of this web page however, only the more general and more common classes will be described. The terms used are adjectives defining specific morphological traits.