A pollen calendar is used to show the peak pollen times for different types of plant pollen, which causes allergic reactions in certain people.[1][2][3]
However, the use of a pollen calendar to set the date of death should be used with extreme caution, and only by a carefully trained expert witness.[7] The CSI effect has put pressure on some police officers and district attorneys to provide pollen-based evidence, but such evidence "appear[s] to be of limited use in the forensic context where outcomes are scrutinised in court."[7]
^ abE. Montali, A. Mercuri, G. Trevisan Grandi, and C. Accorsi. "Towards a 'crime pollen calendar'—Pollen analysis on corpses throughout one year." Forensic Science International, Volume 163, Issue 3, pp. 211–223. Abstract found at ScienceDirect website. Accessed February 22, 2010. Archived April 15, 2020, at the Wayback Machine.
^D.C. Mildenhall, P.E.J. Wiltshire, and V.M. Bryant. "Editorial: Forensic palynology." Forensic Science International, Volume 163 (2006), pp. 161–162. Found at Texas A & M University website (PDF). Accessed February 23, 2010.
^ abPatricia E. J. Wiltshire. "Forensic Ecology, Botany, and Palynology: Some Aspects of Their Role in Criminal Investigation," in Criminal and Environmental Soil Forensics (Springer Netherlands 2009), pp. 129–149. ISBN978-1-4020-9203-9 (print), 978-1-4020-9204-6 (online). Found at SpringerLink website. Accessed February 23, 2010. Archived June 9, 2018, at the Wayback Machine.