Dieffenbachia is one of the easiest indoor houseplants to grow and one of the most common indoor plants. This tropical shrub shows off lush leaves that are usually marked in shades of cream, yellow, or white. It adds fun color and texture into a home. Although it looks like a friendly plant on the exterior, the interior isn't as friendly as you think. Beautiful photo of Dieffenbachia. In order to obtain this slide, we began by grinding up a small piece of Dieffenbachia and added water to it. The picture you see on the left is the wet mount of the beautiful Dieffenbachia . Within Dieffenbachia are cells called Idioblast. They have various functions such as storage of reserves and minerals. Their main function is to protect plants from predators with the crystals that they produce. Idioblast taken at 400x magnification These crystals are called raphides. Raphides are needle-shaped crystals of calcium oxalate that are very toxic. When ingested, it can cause stinging/burning in the mouth, paralysis and airway impairments. Raphides taken at 400x magnification In this video, we can see raphides being ejected from idioblast. How cool is that? Final thoughts!Although Dieffenbachia contains a chemical toxin when ingested, I still think that they are "friendly" plant. They add such warm and beauty into a room that it's hard to consider them a foe.
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Amateur Botanist Explores Microscopic Magic Crystals, Extra-Hairy Plants, and Alien Spores1/15/2017 I am a house plant addict. As in, turn-my-apartment-into-a-jungle-and-call-it-home kind of addict. I could use the phrase ‘house plant enthusiast’, but it doesn’t quite capture the depth of my affection for these organisms. So imagine my excitement upon seeing a table full of some of my favorites placed at the front of the lab room. Imagine again my slight adrenaline rush in in learning that we were going to study them under microscopes - exploring their cells, traveling to far off places unreachable by the naked eye. I was stoked. For starters, I had a quick *heart eyes* moment with one of the specimens, a majestic (and I do mean majestic) Begonia before diving in to the task at hand: trichome collection and examination. Trichomes are hair-like structures that cover the leaves and stem of the plant; they come in many shapes and sizes and serve a variety of functions. In some plants, trichomes are coated in sticky substances capable of trapping insects, preparing them for chemical digestion. In others, the hairs prevent herbivory by means of painful chemical injection. Begonias are more ‘sunshine and daisies’ when it comes to their epidermal hairs, most likely serving to collect moisture from the air or prevent herbivory by having an unpleasing texture. After producing a wet mount slide, I was surprised to see a difference in the cellular shape of the trichome relative to the those of the leaf it was attached to. Where leaf cells were circular in shape, cells of the trichomes were rectangular. Furthermore, fuzzy deep red pigments were mixed with slight pockets of green – an act of Christmas regurgitating its holiday sprinkles all over this plant or anthocyanins masking chlorophyll pigments? I’ll let you decide. Next up: examining raphide crystals found within Tradescantia zebrina (aka “Inchplant”) and druse crystals formed in an unknown species of Begonia via wet mount slides. These structures are products of excess inorganic particles (most often calcium salts) being deposited into the vacuole in crystalline form. The raphide crystals were easy enough to find, often found in clusters mixed with cell matter. However, searching for druse crystals felt like searching for Waldo in a sea of cartoon people; you find him once, painstakingly, and then you can’t find him again. My favorite part of this lab reminded me of one of my all-time favorite films, The Fifth Element, which revolves around the “untraditional hero saves planet” trope. Bruce Willis plays Korben Dallas, an ex-galactic special forces operative turned cab driver of the 23rd century, who attempts to save the world from a giant ball of talking fire in space. I can't make this stuff up, guys - its cinematic gold. That giant ball of talking fire, who calls himself "Mr. Shadow", looked pretty similar to the Ceratopteris richardii spore under my microscope (in my humble opinion). Under 400x magnification, the surface ridges on this tiny sphere give it the look of some far off planet in outer space. In reality, it comes from an aquatic fern found on Planet Earth, dubbed the “C-Fern”. Our mission: examine the spores under a microscope and sow into prepared culture plates containing agar and mineral nutrients, where it will be examined further in the coming weeks. Author: Amy KHouse plant addict. Believer in Himalayan Salt lamps. Enjoys the little things in life like popcorn and vegan marshmallows. |
AuthorContent is created by students participating in the Plant Structure course at Oregon State University for Winter 2017. Archives
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