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My suggestion: put a small part of the catkin in water, on a microscope slide. Demolish it with a needle and squash it with a cover slide. In case it is a male (unripe) catkin then it still may contain the characteristic triporate pollen grains. best wishes, Bas van Geel ________________________________ From: The archaeobotany mailing list [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Trond Magne Storstad [[log in to unmask]] Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2017 7:55 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Charred Betula catkin, -female or male, and which species? During an excavation in 1989, a charred fragment of a birch catkin was found in a fireplace, later dated to about 9500 BP. The location is by a lake in boreal-subalpine forest, Rogaland county, SW Norway. The catkin was identified as “Betula sp.”. If we knew which species of Betula, and if it is male or female, this would suggest when during the year this location was in use. A male catkin of Betula pubescens would suggest late autumn to early spring, while a female one suggests some time in summer. The likely species are Betula pubescens, most likely the mountain subspecies (tortuosa/czerepanovii); or Betula nana. In B. nana, the male and female catkins both appear in spring. The fragment is about 5 mm in diameter, and about 3 mm in length. It is photographed from 3 angles: assumed “upper end” of catkin, “cross section”, and from the side. I would appreciate some help with this one, -if possible. Thanks! Trond ------------------------------------------------------------------ Trond Magne Storstad Botanist/chemist, Cand. scient. University of Stavanger, Museum of Archaeology N-4036 Stavanger, Norway Email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Phone (office): (+47) 51832639/ 51832644 Mobile phone: (+47) 41617339 www.arkeologiskmuseum.no<http://www.arkeologiskmuseum.no/> [cid:image002.jpg@01D06234.0D77C980]