At the peak of summer, the potted plants in my balcony get an extra dose of sunlight! One of these plants is the Ceylon spinach ( Talinum fruticosum ) . I noticed that during summer its leaves are curled up most of the time. I guessed the excess of sunlight or wet soil may be the cause.

This episode sparked my interest to observe stomata in succulent leaves. So I took up another common plant, the Aloe Vera , which has long fleshy leaves.

Here they are! Since Aloe vera is a xerophyte, there are fewer stomata and like other monocots they are in a systematic pattern.

Soon after, I started observing the stomata of green leafy vegetables that are part of our regular diet. We generally add these greens to dal, curry or chutney. All these plant leaves are juicy. Peeling their epidermis is easy and now I have learnt that adding a drop of water greatly improves the clarity of images.

Malabar spinach (Basella alba)

Here is Spinach dock or khatta palak ( Rumex vesicarius ). In this plant, I found open stomata when the leaf was fresh! When the leaf was dry (after 3-4 hours) the stomata were closed!

Purslane leaves or gangavalli  ( Portulaca oleracea ).

Did you know that this green was endorsed by Mahatma Gandhi? Purslane was his favourite green vegetable because of its high nutritious value. Read more here .

I have yet another interesting plant in my balcony called Brahma Kamalam ( Epiphyllum oxypetalum ) which is a cactus species. I planted this for its unique flowering pattern and exquisite fragrance! The plant flowers just once a year at night, and the flower wilts away by dawn.

The primary stem of the Bramha Kamalam is terete and the secondary stem is like a leaf with a lobed margin. On the margin there are leaves.

It was very hard to get the epidermis peel, so I had to get back to the dear old nail polish method! The leaf was covered  with a waxy cuticle so I scratched the epidermis with a blade! I found very few stomata in this plant too!