comparing different petals of the same pea flower; trichomes & pigments

Sep 11, 2019 • 8:23 AM UTC

Unknown Location

140x Magnification

Unknown

MananSuri

My name is Manan. I am a student from New Delhi, India. I like to explore the world around me, and foldscope acts like a gateway for me to delve into the microcosmos. Always open to learning new things, meeting new people and and having new memories.

16posts

33comments

1locations

I was trying to make a slide of the pollen of a pea flower, but since the anthers hadn’t dehisced, I couldn’t do so.

Then I thought about making the slide of the petals of the flower. There are three different types of petals of the pea flower which has vexillary aestivation: the large standard enveloping two medium sized lateral wings which further enclose the keel.
I made slides of the standard (large petal) and the keel (the small, inner petal.
The standard was blue in colour. Slide showed that it had hair like structures known as trichomes.

the dried petal

Structure of trichome is quite visible here

Here trichomes are visible as emerging out

contrast created due to where the slide was wet and where it wasn’t Then I observed the keels. The petals were white in colour. Cells were irregularly shaped. Absence of trichomes was observed. Vein like structures were visible.