Annotated dataset of pollen pellet images from 40 major beekeeping plants

Pollen is the main source of proteins, amino acids, lipids, sterols, fatty acids, vitamins and other nutrients for honeybees. Knowing the pollinating plants of an area and identifying the incoming pollen sources inside the hive can be extremely useful information for beekeepers in controlling the development of their colonies and implementing appropriate manipulations throughout the year. Thus, a database was created, including images and characteristics of the pollen pellets of 40 major beekeeping plants. Bee pollen was collected from pollen traps, which were placed at the hive entrances of experimental bee colonies.

Freshly collected pollen was cleaned of foreign matter and placed -18 oC in glass jars until the time of analysis. Every 15 days a representative sample of 10% of the total quantity was separated mainly by color, shape and size in order to assess the contribution of each species. For the identification of pollen grains, the Louveaux method was used, according to which a small amount of pollen was placed on a slide and the pellets were dissolved with 2-3 drops of diethyl ether. After evaporation of the solvent, a drop of aqueous isoglucose solution (2:1) was added to hydrate the pollen grains and a drop of alcoholic fuchsin solution was added to stain them. The preparations were then placed on a hot plate to evaporate the moisture. This was followed by placement of a coverslip with Entellan to fix the preparation. The final preparation was examined under the microscope to identify the plant from which the pollen pellet came. For the microscopic identification of the pollen types, the collection of reference slides from the Laboratory of Apiculture of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, which is accredited to ISO 17025:2017, was used. Pollen pellets from the various taxa were placed on a special white plate to ensure a neutral background and to limit possible reflections as much as possible. Photographs were taken with smartphone cameras, in order to simulate the actual conditions of photography for potential users in the field.

The dataset contains 139 training captured images of bee pollen pellets from 40 major beekeeping plants (class list can be found below) and 13 testing captured images. Polygon annotations were created using LabelMe software and saved in COCO Annotation format (train.json and val.json files).

Further information about the related project (SmartBeeKeep) can be found in the following article and presentation (please site if you use these data):

• Vasilios Liolios, Dimitrios Kanelis, Maria-Anna Rodopoulou, Chrysoula Tananaki (2023). A Comparative Study of Methods Recording Beekeeping Flora. Forests, 14(8), 1677; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14081677 
• Nikos Grammalidis, Andreas Stergioulas, Aggelos Avramidis, Konstantinos Karystinakis, Athanasios Partozis, Athanasios Topaloudis, Georgia Kalantzi, Chrisoula Tananaki, Dimitrios Kanelis, Vasilis Liolios, and Madesis Panagiotis "A smart beekeeping platform based on remote sensing and artificial intelligence", Proc. SPIE 12786, Ninth International Conference on Remote Sensing and Geoinformation of the Environment (RSCy2023), 127860C (21 September 2023); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2681866 Event: Ninth International Conference on Remote Sensing and Geoinformation of the Environment (RSCy2023), 2023, Ayia Napa, Cyprus Author preprint available

Annotation - Latin name

Anthemis - Anthemis sp.

Asphodelus - Asphodelus fistulosus

Brassica napus - Brassica napus

Castanea sativa - Castanea sativa

Cephalaria transsylvanica - Cephalaria transsylvanica

Chenopodium album - Chenopodium album

Cichorium - Cichorium intybus

Cistus - Cistus creticus

Cistus salvifolius - Cistus salvifolius

Convolvulus - Convolvulus arvensis

Daucus - Daucus carota

Echium - Echium plantagineum

Erica - Erica manipuliflora

Hedera helix - Hedera helix

Helianthus - Helianthus annuus

Heliotropium - Heliotropium europaeum

Hypericum - Hypericum perforatum

Lavandula - Lavandula angustifolia

Ligustrum - Ligustrum japonicum

Matricaria - Matricaria chamomilla

Olea_europaea_9cm - Olea europaea

Paliurus - Paliurus spina-christi

Papaver - Papaver rhoeas

Pinus - Pinus sp.

Polygonum_aviculare - Polygonum aviculare

Portulaca - Portulaca oleracea

Pyrus - Pyrus spinosa

Quercus - Quercus coccifera

Rosmarinus - Rosmarinus officinalis

Rubus - Rubus ulmifolius

Carduus - Silybum marianum

sinapis - Sinapis arvensis

Sonchus - Sonchus asper

Taraxacum - Taraxacum officinale

Tamarix - Tamarix sp.

Tilia - Tilia sp.

Tribulus - Tribulus terrestis

Trifolium pratensis - Trifolium campestre

Verbascum - Verbascum nigrum

Vicia - Vicia villosa