Carbon dioxide sinks

Dec 30, 2017 • 6:25 PM UTC

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Microorganisms

Cristina

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Yesterday, whilst I was strolling in my city , I found some spiderwort species growing vigorously nearby and instantly

reminded that once, in a past microcosmos post, I had read it was an ideal candidate to observe meiosis. As it is obvious, my plan will have to wait until it begins to blossom but, in the meantime, I felt curious about its colourful leaves. After grabbing some of them ( 😇😇 , feeling a little bit guilty but knowing it was worth doing it 🔬😉 ), and when I got back home, I got my Foldscope and began solving this new inquiry. This is what I saw: epidermal cells and beautiful stomata amongst them. To my surprise, some (four?) subsidiary cells sorround the two guard cells that make an stomata, a fact I did not know before this observation.

I hope you can distinguish the vast array of chloroplasts inside the guard cells. Nevertheless, I decided to try with the high magnification lens and see what I was so lucky to watch!

The guard cells bulge and control the aperture between them (in black).

I wanted to better distinguish each cell using a blue food dye, but it was not useful.

Finally, I decided to try a very thin “loaf” of one leaf in my Foldscope, and saw this absolutely amazing scaffolding of cells .

This arrangement lets them funtion as living factories of the mollecules of life. In this orchestra of cells, stomata act as carbon dioxide sinks. A lot to think about this!
Happy new year and thanks for reading!
Cristina Bosch