Paph under the microscope

[fibre]

Some time ago the boy friend of my daughter brought an historic microscope. We had some fun with it and I was curious to see the leaf of Paph. niveum through the lenses. Here are some pics he took.

First one is a cross-section:


The second one shows a vascular bundle (Is this the correct term? I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with the technical vocabulary):



And here are three beautiful pics of sections through the stem with its hairs. The last picture shows two stem-sections next to each other.


I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I do!

.

 

[Don I]

Neat.
Don

 

[DrLeslieEe]

Fascinating... there seems to be a red flavonoid pigmentation in the hair of the leave?

Is the second pic showing the stomata?

 

[musa]

Absolutly great fotos! A beautiful blow up of our passion...
How did you manage taking such fotos with a historic microscope?

The second pic should be a cross section of a leaf vein. I think vascular bundel is right.

 

[fibre]

Fascinating... there seems to be a red flavonoid pigmentation in the hair of the leave?

Yes, there are hairs filled with red colour at the stem of the flower (last two pics).
You can see a layer of cells filled with red anthocyanin at the first pic, the cross section of a leaf, as well.

Is the second pic showing the stomata?

It is a cross section of a leaf vein.

 

[DrLeslieEe]

Seeing the microscopic world of the slippers is such a treat! Thanks!

 

[fibre]

Absolutly great fotos! A beautiful blow up of our passion...

Thank you, Musa!

How did you manage taking such fotos with a historic microscope?

The photographs are recorded with the camera of a cell-phone through the ocular. It is a very simple way and works quite well for our purpose.

 

[GuRu]

Very impressive photos, I can't remember of seeing such photos alraedy before. I had two questions, one of them you already answered in your post #7.

...........The photographs are recorded with the camera of a cell-phone through the ocular. ........

The other one is: How high is the magnification in these photos? Is it equal in all photos?

 

[Ozpaph]

Amazing and thank-you!!!

 

[fibre]

The other one is: How high is the magnification in these photos? Is it equal in all photos?

I'm sorry, we didn't take the photographs for scientific purpose, but just of curiousity. So I don't remember the number of magnification.
If you look at the buble-like cells, they all have about the same size. So all pics have the same scale beside pic #2 with the leaf vein. This is of a stronger magnification.

But,
by preparing the pics for showing them here, I made cuts and took details and so on ... So there isn't any possibility to tell anything correct about the scale of the pics.

 

[GuRu]

I'm sorry, we didn't take the photographs for scientific purpose, but just of curiousity. So I don't remember the number of magnification......

Chris, this doesn't matter anything. It was only of interest to get an imagination of the magnification, not for other purposes.

 

[fibre]

Here is a section with some explaining text.


For me it is quite interesting, that the upper epidermis is about 1/3 of the thickness of the leaf and the lower epidermis is filled with red anthocyan.
.

 

[fibre]

Is the second pic showing the stomata?

Here you are, stomata:

 

[NYEric]

Wow! Thanks for sharing.

 

[TyroneGenade]

Thank you for sacrificing a Paph leaf for these beautiful micrographs.

 

[Duck Slipper]

Makes me remember Botany...
Thanks for sharing

 

[abax]

Fascinating and well done! Illustrated just how much we don't see

 

[southernbelle]

Love this!! I've tried to photograph through a small microscope that I bought that attaches to my phone, but problem is holding it still!! I sort of lost interest, but I was simply trying to photograph critters for identification. These are great photos and quite fascinating. Thank you!!

 

[Happypaphy7]

Here is a section with some explaining text.
View attachment 24195

For me it is quite interesting, that the upper epidermis is about 1/3 of the thickness of the leaf and the lower epidermis is filled with red anthocyan.
.

Ok, this makes more sense. Thank you.
Last night, I saw the first set of photos and thought why the cuticle layer is so thick. I know that it is very thin because I have peeled it off myself (by accident, a few times haha).
I wonder if the upper epidermis serves as water reservoir for brachys and parvis? Some brachys like godefroyae and niveum seem to have especially thick layer of that clear upper layer (epidermis) by visual inspection alone.
Another thing I wonder about is why do parvis and brachys have those dark purple pigments on their underside where the light doesn't reach as much as the upper side?
Thank you again for these great close up photos!

 

[SuperPaph]

Very nteresting detaills!!! It is clear that stomes are abundanter in the lower side of the leaf.