Polypodium sporangia fluorescence
Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau
Polypodium sporangia fluorescence
These are the sporangia of the fern Polypodium vulgare auto-fluorescing under UV. I immersed the leaf in water and used an Olympus 10x water dipping objective. I liked the way that the spores are visible inside the sporangia.
Dave
Dave
Last edited by micro_pix on Thu Nov 12, 2020 1:55 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Re: Polypoium sporangia fluorescence.
Excellent pictures of one of my favorite subjects
What UV source and filters did you used?
What UV source and filters did you used?
Pau
Re: Polypoium sporangia fluorescence.
Thanks Pau. I used my infinite Olympus BH2 with the standard mercury lamp and UV dichroic mirror - no extra barrier filter. The objective was an Olympus UMPlanFL 10x W
Dave
Re: Polypodium sporangia fluorescence
Great use of the water objective. How did you avoid air bubbles? I tried this once but the bubbles ruined it.
Re: Polypodium sporangia fluorescence
It’s the first time I’ve used a water objective so I didn’t have any experience. I must have been lucky; I just put it in a petri dish, weighted the ends of the leaf with a couple of steel washers and filled the dish with de-ionised water. I’m not sure if the de-ionised water makes a difference with bubbles but I always use it for microscopy.
Dave
Re: Polypodium sporangia fluorescence
Thanks, maybe that's the key.
Re: Polypodium sporangia fluorescence
Thanks for posting. It adds a whole new level of understanding for these sporangia I keep finding laying around.
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Re: Polypodium sporangia fluorescence
Very nice.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing.
Re: Polypodium sporangia fluorescence
It could be, although I lean to think more about the composition and structure of the plant surface.
Most plants have hydrophobic substances like wax in their surfaces to impermeabilize them in order to avoid excessive water evaporation, this effect can be enhanced with small hydrophobic hairs.
Plants living in humid environments like ferns often have less hydrophobic surfaces.
Maybe adding an humectant substance to the water could aid to avoid bubbles, I'm thinking in a product used to improve uniform drying of photographic paper (old times dark room memories ) or dish washer brightener. Liquid soap also would do but likely it will be more aggressive
Pau
Re: Polypodium sporangia fluorescence
This is definitely true, and when I am shooting through water with a normal objective, I always use it. This also reduces meniscus effects that can distort the image, and I suspect it also reduces wave activity due to vibrations. But I am afraid to use a surfactant with a water-dipping objective, because it might affect the seals or leave a residue.Maybe adding an humectant substance to the water could aid to avoid bubbles
Re: Polypodium sporangia fluorescence
I have occasionally used a tiny amount Decon90 (a strong surfactant) when photographing fungal structures in water under a coverslip and that helped avoid bubbles but I haven’t used it lately. A very unscientific observation I know but a drop of de-ionised water does seem to spread out and wet the surface of a fern leaf much better than a drop of tap water and I was surprised at how well it displaced the air around the nooks and crannies of the sporangia.
Edit: I have sought out some reliable sources and it appears that de-ionised water has a higher surface tension than tap water! Well I did say my observation wasn’t scientific.
Dave
Edit: I have sought out some reliable sources and it appears that de-ionised water has a higher surface tension than tap water! Well I did say my observation wasn’t scientific.
Dave
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Re: Polypodium sporangia fluorescence
These certainly look alien and spooky to me, I love it! One day, I'll get that expensive bx3-ura or DIY a cage system to do fluorescence.
Re: Polypodium sporangia fluorescence
I do fluorescence with no filter cube, very cheap.
Re: Polypodium sporangia fluorescence
Did you show this in a previous post Lou? If you did could you post a link, I’d like to see how you have set it up.
Dave
Dave