Myriophyllum beautiful but a nuisance

Myriophyllum or Red stem is a water plant that prefers to take root on the transition from land to water. The stems can grow up to 2 meters long and protrude a few decimetres above the water. Red stem grows particularly well in shallow, warm and nutrient-rich waters. The plant usually roots in shallow riparian zones, but free-floating stems without roots can also survive in nutrient-rich deep water. Red stem is originally from South America.

Myriophyllum was imported for trade in pond and aquarium plants. The plants come into nature because people throw away excess plants in public waters, after which they can spread further.

A better image for your stereo microscope

In compound microscopes, an illumination parallel to the optical axis is the standard. A lot of hardware is implemented to ensure this axial illumination: Center-adjustable Field and Aperture diaphragm, centerable light rings for Phase contrast and Darkfield for transmitted light, center-adjustable objectives and/or centerable rotatable stages in Polarization microscopes. With all these microscopes we are working on 2-dimensional samples.

In stereo microscopy, a 3D image from a 3-dimensional sample is our ambition. Different viewing angles for both eyes create different images on the retina of the left and the right eye. Our brain is going to process both images. This concept is best comprehensible in the Greenough construction of a traditional stereo microscope: two complete separate beam paths from objective to the eyes, mounted in a relative angle of 11°-16°. But even in the modern, more flexible CMO (Central Main Objective) concept a different viewing angle is realized.

Greenough type                       CMO (Galilean) type 

Desmids - Beautiful single celled algae

There are many different types of algae, differing in both size, shape, color, habitat and more. Some types are multicellular and very large like seaweed, some are microscopic and colonial like Eudorina, while others consist of only a single cell. Some of these are called desmids (desmidiales).

Desmids are highly symmetrical unicellular green algae which can take on many different shapes depending on the specific species. The desmids also vary in size between species, the smallest being only a couple of microns and the largest reaching a size of several hundreds of microns and are visible with the naked eye. Desmids are most commonly found in freshwater where several thousand species can be found.

Protected against harsh conditions

As mentioned in a previous publication, helm grass is what we encounter in the dunes among others in the Netherlands. The Ammophillia arenaria can withstand the salty water and salty sea air. Ammophillia arenaria can be planted on all types of soil, only on clay soil it is best to make the soil poor with masonry sand. The soil must be calcareous.

Red blood cells - the cells that help you breath

Adult humans carry around 5 liters of blood in their circulatory system. Roughly half of that is cells, and the other half is a pale yellow liquid called plasma. The vast majority of these cells are erythrocytes, more commonly known as red blood cells (RBCs). Our red blood cells are the most abundant cell type in the human body accounting for approximately 70% of all your cells. They measure roughly 7 microns in diameter and around 1-2 microns in thickness.

Sambucus, breathing through the cork layer

Cork is formed by a cambium layer that itself almost always arises as secondary meristem from the collenchyma or parenchyma layer directly under the epidermis. Unlike sclerenchymal cells, collenchymal cells are still alive and have retained the ability to differentiate. Cork cambium cells only divide periclinally, creating the typical rows of daughter cells. In this way mainly cork cells are produced to the outside and to a much lesser extent (sometimes not at all) cork parenchyma is produced to the inside. Cork cambium, cork cells and cork parenchyma together are also called periderm. Developed cork cells are dead and their cell walls contain suberine, a greasy substance that repels water.

Chloroplasts - the solar panels of the plant cell

We have known for many years that plants get their energy from the sun. But turning sunlight into usable energy requires some special hardware, and this is where chloroplasts come in. Chloroplasts are microscopic structures present in most plant cells. In fact, they are present in such high numbers that you can see them without a microscope as the green color of plants. The chloroplasts green color is due to the presence of a green pigment called chlorophyll, which absorbs both red and blue lightwaves from the sun and reflects green light giving the pigment its green color. The red and blue sunlight (energy) absorbed by the molecule is then able to drive photosynthesis which happens in the chloroplasts.

The horsetail – a widespread group of vascular plants with an interesting history

A great part of our fossil fuels is based on distant relatives from our present horsetails. During the Carboniferous, this group of plants attained almost worldwide distribution: arborescent lifeforms up to 30m. The decay of these trees under anaerobic conditions, later additionally under high pressure and high temperatures finally formed coal, still one basis of fossil energy.

Today the horsetails are worldwide in distribution except for parts of Australasia. In Middle Europe a plant height of 1m is remarkable.

The most conspicuous morphological feature of a horsetail is the segmentation of the shoot into nodes and internodes. This is why these plants are also called the “articulate”.

                                               Equisetum telmateia                       Equisetum telmateia (note the jointed stem)

It looks like a miniature pine forest

Hippuris vulgaris or Marestail is a common swamp and pond plant. This plant is counted among the oxygen plants because the underwater leaves also produce a lot of oxygen and it resembles Elodea (waterweeds) The piece that is a few decimeters above the water looks like a small pine tree. Marestail can form large masses and propagate by means of rhizomes. It prefers to grow on clay soil and in particular in brackish water. A Marestail field looks like a miniature pine forest.

Euglena - part plant, part animal

Cells with a nucleus are called true cells, or eukaryotes, which can be further subdivided into kingdoms like plant and animal. Plant cells and animal cells are different in their components and structure, but some organisms does not fit as neatly into these little boxes and can be tricky to place on ‘the tree of life’. One of these is the single celled organism euglena.

Euglena with clearly visible red eyespots