Can I photograph the opening and closing of stomata using Foldscope.

Mar 29, 2024 • 9:51 AM UTC

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Rafikh Shaikh

I'm a science educator interested in everything science.

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Before I started the experiment, I didn't know about the similar similar experiment Manu Prakash had done in 2015. But I got to know about this mid experiment and it was really helpful in filming the stomata movement. You can read about it here: https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/post/transfer_8159

Stomata are tiny pores on leaves, I had seen stomata of many plants around me but they were not large enough to see opening and closing just with Foldscope. I started hunting for plants with large stomata.

Did some research in literature and found that Wandering Jew (Tradescantia zebrina) is among the plants that have pretty big stomata and I had seen it in nurseries in Mumbai. I went and bought the plant from nearby nursery. And yes, its stomata were massive!

Now I needed to find out when do stomata open and close. All I knew was that for many plants they are open during day and close during night. I did some digging and found that along with time of the day, temperature, humidity levels, CO2 levels etc also play role.

First I decided to see if I can identify when the stomata are open and close. I took photos during the day at 4 pm and during night at 4 am approximately. First photo is night time and second is day time. I could make out the difference between open and close stomata. Can you see?

Now I want to see if I can record the opening and closing of stomata in a video/gif. For this I need to find out if I can open and close stomata in a short time and artificially. I need to read scientific papers to find out a simple method usable at home.

Update: Managed 2 capture a small movement of a stoma, it is a timelapse video. I hope d closing is visible.

My setup looked like this

I tried 2 things: lowering the temp by 10 degree Celsius and changing localised CO2 levels by blowing near leaf. I don't know what worked. Also see the movement of fluid in cells around stomata.