# Paph under the microscope



## fibre (Dec 21, 2020)

Some time ago the boy friend of my daughter brought an historic microscope. We had some fun with it and I was curious to see the leaf of Paph. niveum through the lenses. Here are some pics he took.

First one is a cross-section:



The second one shows a vascular bundle (Is this the correct term? I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with the technical vocabulary):




And here are three beautiful pics of sections through the stem with its hairs. The last picture shows two stem-sections next to each other.





I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I do!

.


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## Don I (Dec 21, 2020)

Neat.
Don


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## DrLeslieEe (Dec 22, 2020)

Fascinating... there seems to be a red flavonoid pigmentation in the hair of the leave?

Is the second pic showing the stomata?


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## musa (Dec 22, 2020)

Absolutly great fotos! A beautiful blow up of our passion...
How did you manage taking such fotos with a historic microscope?

The second pic should be a cross section of a leaf vein. I think vascular bundel is right.


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## fibre (Dec 22, 2020)

DrLeslieEe said:


> Fascinating... there seems to be a red flavonoid pigmentation in the hair of the leave?



Yes, there are hairs filled with red colour at the stem of the flower (last two pics). 
You can see a layer of cells filled with red anthocyanin at the first pic, the cross section of a leaf, as well.



DrLeslieEe said:


> Is the second pic showing the stomata?


It is a cross section of a leaf vein.


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## DrLeslieEe (Dec 22, 2020)

Seeing the microscopic world of the slippers is such a treat! Thanks!


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## fibre (Dec 22, 2020)

musa said:


> Absolutly great fotos! A beautiful blow up of our passion...


Thank you, Musa!


musa said:


> How did you manage taking such fotos with a historic microscope?


The photographs are recorded with the camera of a cell-phone through the ocular. It is a very simple way and works quite well for our purpose.


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## GuRu (Dec 22, 2020)

Very impressive photos, I can't remember of seeing such photos alraedy before. I had two questions, one of them you already answered in your post #7.


fibre said:


> ...........The photographs are recorded with the camera of a cell-phone through the ocular. ........


The other one is: How high is the magnification in these photos? Is it equal in all photos?


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## Ozpaph (Dec 22, 2020)

Amazing and thank-you!!!


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## fibre (Dec 22, 2020)

GuRu said:


> The other one is: How high is the magnification in these photos? Is it equal in all photos?


I'm sorry, we didn't take the photographs for scientific purpose, but just of curiousity. So I don't remember the number of magnification.
If you look at the buble-like cells, they all have about the same size. So all pics have the same scale beside pic #2 with the leaf vein. This is of a stronger magnification.

But,
by preparing the pics for showing them here, I made cuts and took details and so on ... So there isn't any possibility to tell anything correct about the scale of the pics.


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## GuRu (Dec 22, 2020)

fibre said:


> I'm sorry, we didn't take the photographs for scientific purpose, but just of curiousity. So I don't remember the number of magnification......



Chris, this doesn't matter anything. It was only of interest to get an imagination of the magnification, not for other purposes.


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## fibre (Dec 22, 2020)

Here is a section with some explaining text.



For me it is quite interesting, that the upper epidermis is about 1/3 of the thickness of the leaf and the lower epidermis is filled with red anthocyan. 
.


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## fibre (Dec 22, 2020)

DrLeslieEe said:


> Is the second pic showing the stomata?


Here you are, stomata:


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## NYEric (Dec 22, 2020)

Wow! Thanks for sharing.


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## TyroneGenade (Dec 22, 2020)

Thank you for sacrificing a Paph leaf for these beautiful micrographs.


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## Duck Slipper (Dec 22, 2020)

Makes me remember Botany...
Thanks for sharing


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## abax (Dec 22, 2020)

Fascinating and well done! Illustrated just how much we don't see


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## southernbelle (Dec 22, 2020)

Love this!! I've tried to photograph through a small microscope that I bought that attaches to my phone, but problem is holding it still!! I sort of lost interest, but I was simply trying to photograph critters for identification. These are great photos and quite fascinating. Thank you!!


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## Happypaphy7 (Dec 22, 2020)

fibre said:


> Here is a section with some explaining text.
> View attachment 24195
> 
> 
> ...


Ok, this makes more sense. Thank you. 
Last night, I saw the first set of photos and thought why the cuticle layer is so thick. I know that it is very thin because I have peeled it off myself (by accident, a few times haha). 
I wonder if the upper epidermis serves as water reservoir for brachys and parvis? Some brachys like godefroyae and niveum seem to have especially thick layer of that clear upper layer (epidermis) by visual inspection alone. 
Another thing I wonder about is why do parvis and brachys have those dark purple pigments on their underside where the light doesn't reach as much as the upper side? 
Thank you again for these great close up photos!


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## SuperPaph (Dec 22, 2020)

Very nteresting detaills!!! It is clear that stomes are abundanter in the lower side of the leaf.


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## Ozpaph (Dec 22, 2020)

so helpful!!!


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## SuperPaph (Dec 22, 2020)

In the second picture it is clear the abundance of chloroplasts, structures that conduct photosynthesis, where the photosynthetic pigment chlorophyll (in green), captures the energy from sunlight and converts it and stores it in the energy-storage.
(Part of this paragraph from Wiki).


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## musa (Dec 23, 2020)

Thanks for the magnification, I never saw stomata in crossection so clearly.
What did you use for cutting, a razorblade?


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## fibre (Dec 23, 2020)

musa said:


> Thanks for the magnification, I never saw stomata in crossection so clearly.
> What did you use for cutting, a razorblade?


Ja, Rasierklinge und Orchideenblatt/Stängel zwischen Hälften von Gelber Rübe.

The leaf / stem was put between two halves of a carrot and the cut with a razor blade.


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## DrLeslieEe (Dec 23, 2020)

Still fascinating to see the inside world of the leaves.

Have you done cross section of flowers to see color anthocyanin distribution?


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## fibre (Dec 23, 2020)

DrLeslieEe said:


> Have you done cross section of flowers to see color anthocyanin distribution?


We haven't done that yet. Maybe we will have a opportunity in the next few weeks. Colour distribution in a section of a flower is an interesting thing and I'm curious to see sections of the stigma and capsule.


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## My Green Pets (Dec 30, 2020)

The internet need more photos like this, thank you so much for posting. Can you say what magnification this was?


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## fibre (Jan 1, 2021)

Thank you, William! 
I'm sorry, but I don't remember the magnification. My guess is about 150x.


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## Guldal (Jan 1, 2021)

Great pictures! 

Happy, Healthy and Floriferous New Year to you, Chris - and to everybody on STC!  

Kind regards, Jens


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## fibre (Jan 2, 2021)

Oh, thank you, Jens!
I wish a Happy New Year for you as well! May it be successful for you and bring lots of Paph flowers!


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## cnycharles (Jan 2, 2021)

cool, thank you!


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## fibre (Jan 3, 2021)

cnycharles said:


> cool, thank you!


You're Wellcome! It's a pleasure for me!


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