I met the official photographer of the Shroud. He was completely convinced the Shroud is authentic, although oddly enough he remains an unconverted Jew.
Although he said there is no truth to there being any pollen on the shroud.
I too have talked to Barry Schwortz and I really doubt he would claim that in light of the multiple sticky tape samples have been taken from the Shroud with pollen on them and Barry is completely aware of these. I've had extended conversations with Barry. . . and I am cited on Shroud.com.
It is just false to state there are no pollen on the Shroud. There would be normal environmental pollen from years of exposition out in the public.
In addition, Barry is completely aware of Dr. Avanoam Danin's paper on the subject. Dr. Danin, is the foremost expert on the biology of plants in the Jerusalem Area. Dr. Danin is Professor of Plant Biology in the Department of Evolution, Systematics, and Ecology at The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel. The paper, written with Uri Baruch, a Palynology expert, is hosted on Barry's site: FLORISTIC INDICATORS FOR THE ORIGIN OF THE SHROUD OF TURIN, in which he and Baruch identifies 204 species of pollen found on the Shroud along with flowers and other plants images ON the Shroud, some of which have been extinct for over 1500 years, which are only native to areas around Jerusalem. Barry would not deny science he is not expert in.
Currently, it is likely there are no longer pollen on the Shroud since in 2002, Madame Mechtild Fleury-Lemberg did an ill-advised "restoration" of the Shroud of Turin, which also involved vacuuming it and washing it. . . at well as cleaning it, thereby removing anything that may have been imbedded on the surface or in the fibers. Barry like most Shroud researchers was not advised this was going to happen until after it was done. . . and was aghast at the loss of extant evidence this woman removed, including pollen, dust, fibers, etc., years of accumulated evidence of where the Shroud had travelled. Perhaps that is what Barry was referring to when he told you there were no pollen on the Shroud.