Last Saturday, I took a leisurely stroll through one of my most favorite parks in all of Shanghai to explore the local nature and take a break from the ceaseless pulse of the city. As I wandered, I couldn’t help but take a moment to observe the beautiful flora that surrounded me, taking pictures and collecting samples along the way. My eyes were first drawn to the vibrant flowers that dotted the landscape as their bright colors were in beautiful contrast to the surrounding landscape.

Surprisingly enough, the vast quantity of dried leaves which peppered the ground began to catch my eye. I picked one up to examine it and found that its structure appeared much more vivid despite decomposing, so I decided to place it in my bag alongside the freshly picked flowers. 

As I traveled, I was overcome with a sense of tranquility which I only find when I immerse myself in nature, free from the problems and pursuits that constantly occupy my mind. Before the sun set, I looped back around because I realized that I had overlooked a few plants while I was enjoying my momentary bliss, so I made sure to photograph them and collect samples so I could observe at home.

Once I was done exploring, I hopped on my moped to zoom back to the dorms where I swiftly set up my foldscope and began preparing my slides. I did find it a bit challenging at the beginning, for I had ran out of the clear stickers and resorted to using the black circle’s, which if not placed perfectly on the first try would ruin the sample. Luckily, after a few tries I quickly mastered the skill and began my microscopic examination.


[Prepared slide of a flower petal]

However, as soon as I tried to take a picture of my first sample, my camera lens was overwhelmed by the brightness of the foldscope light, even on its lowest setting, so I got creative and put three napkins between the flashlight and the foldscope to minimize the brightness.


[My foldscope setup]

Although the process of meticulously placing the sticker onto ultra-thin plant material, manuving the slides, focusing the foldscope, and cleaning the slide after each observation was quite tedious and time consuming, the results were well worth it. I was fascinated by both the depth of color within the cells and their intricate architecture while I thought their variance in structure to be quite surprising.

Here are the micrographs of the flower petals under a 140x magnification foldscope lense :





Here are the micrographs of the leaves under a 140x magnification foldscope lense :


[Micrograph of the dead leaf]

[Micrograph of dying leaf]


I found these to be absolutely extraordinary. Oddly enough, while the flowers were significantly more vibrant on the outside, their cell colors were seen to be relatively mellow in contrast with their leaf counterparts. The most surprising thing by far was how the structures of the leaf material I had already found dead on the ground or dying on the plant seemed much more alive under the microscope than those that were plucked fresh from their stems. As to why this happens, my research suggests that as the leaf decomposes, so too does the chlorophyll inside of it, leaving carotenoids which produce the vibrant yellow colors. Carotenoids decompose too, but not as quickly as chlorophyll, explaining why it lingers long after the chlorophyll has receded. But the most vibrant reds and oranges which drew my eye the most were caused by an entirely different chemical only produced in certain species of plants. The Reds and magentas resulted from pigments called anthocyanins which are shown not necessarily because chlorophyll is diminishing, but in response to environmental factors such as temperature drops, which would be explained by the bitter cold outside.

Nonetheless, as I tucked my foldscipe back into it's carying case, I felt quite content with the findings of what would otherwise have been a rather routine walk. Not only did I gather information about the biology of plants, but emerged with a newfound appreciation for the microscopic beauty of nature.