Mysterious acorn fuzz (mold?)
Nov 07, 2020 • 6:20 PM UTC
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lilacshadow
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I recently received my foldscope, and after finally managing to put it together, began looking around for things that I wanted to explore. Unfortunately, it was an extremely rainy day, so I looked for items around my house that interested me. At first, I focused on inorganic things (toothpaste, etc.) but I found myself longing to examine some sort of plant, in spite of the inclement weather.
Here, one of my habits came in handy: I cannot resist collecting acorns when I see them outside, so I have a sizeable pile of them on my desk. I realized that it would be difficult to place the outside of an acorn on a slide, so I cracked one of the acorns open. I found some fuzzy material on the meat of the acorn. I wasn’t sure whether it was mold or some sort of protective layer that was part of the acorn itself, but I thought that this would be an interesting question to explore. After mounting the material on a slide, I looked at it under the foldscope.
Here, one of my habits came in handy: I cannot resist collecting acorns when I see them outside, so I have a sizeable pile of them on my desk. I realized that it would be difficult to place the outside of an acorn on a slide, so I cracked one of the acorns open. I found some fuzzy material on the meat of the acorn. I wasn’t sure whether it was mold or some sort of protective layer that was part of the acorn itself, but I thought that this would be an interesting question to explore. After mounting the material on a slide, I looked at it under the foldscope.
It was difficult to identify what I was seeing under the foldscope, but from the complex branched structure and the little black dots that are particularly visible in the lower two photos, I concluded that I was looking at some form of mold (although I could be wrong – the photos are not the clearest). I was amazed by how complex and irregular its shapes were, given that the fuzz looked perfectly regular to the naked eye. I wonder why the mold has the structure that it does—is it related to the manner in which the mold grows? Even the fact that there was mold on my acorn was interesting, because I collected it this Fall—it hadn’t been off the tree for all that long. If acorns develop mold this easily, then how do they survive long enough to grow into saplings? I wonder whether the mold doesn’t actually harm the acorn, or whether acorns that are buried (where it may be colder than in my house) would be less likely to develop mold.
I may experiment further to try to get better-quality images and identify exactly what type of mold I am looking at. I still haven’t had the heart to throw the other acorns away, although this investigation hinted that it might be wise.
I conducted this project as part of Professor Pringle’s EEB321 class at Princeton University.
I may experiment further to try to get better-quality images and identify exactly what type of mold I am looking at. I still haven’t had the heart to throw the other acorns away, although this investigation hinted that it might be wise.
I conducted this project as part of Professor Pringle’s EEB321 class at Princeton University.
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