 SEM image of pollen grains Sporopollenin is a tough component of the outer walls of spores and pollen grains. It is resistant to degrading by bacterial and other enzymes and is usually well preserved in soils and sediments. The sporopollenin layer is often intricately sculptured in species-specific patterns (see image at right), allowing material recovered from (for example) lake sediments to provide useful information about plant and fungal populations in the past.
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