Thanks to the winter rains the past few days/a few weeks ago, we’re finally getting lush greenery around campus. So I decided to collect some moss growing near Lake Lag to examine with my foldscope.


 The moss didn’t require too much preparation, since it is pretty thin/translucent even when intact. I took a small bit (one stem, basically) of the moss and placed it on the slide, and added a drop of water before placing the cover slide on top.

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 I was actually able to see incredibly fine lines on the leaves. According to the internet, moss leaves are a single cell-layer thick, so I’m thinking I might have been seeing the cell walls?


 There are lots of lichens and other tiny plants/fungi growing in this wet weather, so it’ll be interesting to see what else I can find and collect for foldscoping!

[Bio60_2019] – Moss

Vrinda Suresh

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