Red Flower on my dinner table

Apr 25, 2015 • 12:16 AM UTC

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140x Magnification

Microorganisms

Manu Prakash

I am a faculty at Stanford and run the Prakash Lab at Department of Bioengineering at Stanford University. Foldscope community is at the heart of our Frugal Science movement - and I can not tell you how proud I am of this community and grassroots movement. Find our work here: http://prakashlab.stanford.edu

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I was enjoying a nice dinner the other day; when suddenly I got caught up looking at this deep red flower, sitting peacefully on my dinner table. I could not resist but wonder how the flower was so deep red, as if I was looking at the cape of little red riding hood. I did something simple; just took one petal and broke it into two pieces. This exposed a thin portion of the petal; which is easier to image since light passes through and I can imagine in transmission mode.
Here is what I saw:
Surprisingly, I can not tell what those big holes are in the middle of the cells. I see them regularly spaced. I am really intrigued by them. One thought is that when I peeled the layer off – somehow stomata guard cells remained behind – leaving the holes. I will need to repeat this again. Another fun thing to notice was a vein like structure, seemingly designed for transport. Take a look..
cheers
manu