I have a fish tank at home and I am starting to look at samples from it under the Foldscope. Here I studied the leaf of Cabomba caroliniana, a basal angiosperm. It is a fast growing common aquarium underwater plant, with linear leaves. I looked at the leaf with the high powered lens. After discussion with Laks Iyer, we had to remove the coverslip off of the glass slide to get a clear image. Under the high powered lens the cells of the leaves were visible
Cells of the linear leaf of Cabomba caroliniana The trichomes of the leaf (hairy outgrowths) were clearly visible, and the most exciting part of the view. Each trichome had clearly visible 1 to 3 cells.
Trichomes of Cabomba caroliniana Since we had to take the coverslip off, within a few minutes the trichomes started to get dessicated.
Dessicated trichomes of Cabomba caroliniana
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