Fern Sporangia, opened up & empty >more fluorescence

[WalterD]

Inspired by the impressive fern sori microphotos I've seen, just collected a couple of fern leafs. Under the microscope the small lightbrown patches under the leafs were found to be opened up, the spores already spread around. Too late, or maybe not?
The empty sporangia were also interesting to look at, the general picture a bit less structured than the ones I was more familiar with. But also giving an insight in the mecahnism that first holds and then launches the spores. Because of the auto fluorescence of this item, the fluorescence microscope was used as well.

Wondering whether there are still some ferns left with unopened sporangia early autumn...

1: 4x/0.10 reflected darkfield
2: 6.5x/0.18 ditto
3: 11x/0.25 ditto
4: 9x/0.20 fluorescence blue filter block

[Jacek]

Very nice

[WalterD]

Thanks, Jacek. Don't forget to visit http://waltermachielsen.com/fern-sori/ for double resolution.

[Pau]

The fluorescence image is very nice. It's with UV excitation, I suppose, as we previously discussed, is it?

Don't forget to visit http://waltermachielsen.com/fern-sori/ for double resolution.

I only can see non clickable miniatures

[WalterD]

Thanks Pau, it was fun to take the pictures. The fluorescent picture was done with the blue filter block on the Lomo Lumam I retrofitted this February, so yes with UV excitation indeed. (same configuration as the pics of the jumping spider, lacewing and lichen, you remember? )

I've reprocessed the fluorescent image this morning , the first version I published here was quite a bit out of balance colour-wise. E.g. the stomata are now more distinct in red. By refreshing the pics after that on my site probably something went wrong, let me check. Anyhow that fluorescent image is also the face of my homepage www.waltermachielsen.com @ 1536 pixel resolution.

Regards,

Walter

[Marek Mis]

Walter, your last image is beautiful !

[MASZEK]

The last photo is wonderful. I search for such ferns myself, but to no avail.
Regards

[Lou Jost]

That last one is really stunning. It is one of the most visually interesting photos I've seen in a long time.

[WalterD]

Marek, Maszek and Lou: many thanks for the compliments!
@Maszek:

I search for such ferns myself, but to no avail.

Don't give up, maybe you can focus on the environment they prefer. This time of the year (in Europe) some of them do have these sori, not all though. Below to get an idea of the two I found.




@Pau: The link is working again, including below pics.

http://waltermachielsen.com/fern-sori/

Fortunately I found some more ferns with the sporangia containing spores. Below photos were all taken with the 9x/0,20 epi fluorescence Lomo objective. 5 & 7 with the green filter block, 6 & 8 blue. The white balance of 7 (fern leaf) was manipulated.
Picture 8 is from a different type of fern, leafs were much smaller and already completely brown. This one had to be "calmed down" a bit as the spores were being launched while observing..
Zerene D-map stacking.
5


6


7

8



Detail: Have a look at the structure of the spores themselves in the better resolution picture on my site.

[MASZEK]

WalterD.
The second series of photos is wonderful. Clear details and amazing colors. I really like the ultraviolet observation

[carlos.uruguay]

Very very very nice!!!!!!!!

[WalterD]

Thank you again for your positive feedback. Thanks Carlos!

[Frank Fox]

Very nice

Frank

[piermicro]

Very nice.

[ChrisR]

Your Beautiful front-page image - what wavelengths is that working with?