SummaryThe series of five bibliographic indices for extant pollen compiled under the editorship of the late G. Thanikaimoni are analyzed with respect to instrumentation used in characterization of the angiosperm pollen wall. It is clear that scanning electron microscopy has become the most common means for examining pollen and that while the number of publications involving pollen morphology increases yearly, only a small number of genera have been studied with either scanning or transmission electron microscopes.