Vascular bundles can be seen very well in these cross-sectional views of a leaf stem of the fig tree, thanks to the Wacker 3A triple staining. This coloring is done with a mixture containing Astra blue, Acriflavin and Acridine red.
Due to the good uniform thickness of the coupe and the fine quality of the Moticam S12 camera, the photos could be taken without stacking.
Sundew or Drosera forms perfect rosettes to the ground and has red tentacles with a sticky, glittering droplet which is secreted by a gland. The flower owes its name to this. Small animals get stuck in the drop and are pushed by the moving tentacles to the leaf surface where they are digested.
Prepared slide by Lieder
The disease owes its name to the Austrian doctor Otto Kahler, who described the disease as one of the first. Kahler's disease, also called multiple myeloma, is a disease of the bone marrow caused by an uncontrolled proliferation of a certain type of white blood cells: plasma cells (also called plasmocytes). Plasma cells are responsible for the formation of antibodies under normal conditions.
The bone marrow is a spongy substance located in the interior of bones, especially the pelvis, sternum, ribs and vertebrae. Bone marrow plays a role in forming bones, but also in forming the cells of the blood: white blood cells (leucocytes), red blood cells (erythrocytes) and platelets (thrombocytes). The disease develops in one abnormal plasma cell, which divides uncontrollably and whose offspring also divides uncontrollably. Since they are all related, they only synthesize one specific type of antibody (or part of it). Since antibodies are proteins, the antibody produced is referred to as the "M protein" (from Myeloma protein). The name paraprotein is also commonly used for the M protein. When a specific piece (called “light chain”) of a paraprotein is found in the urine (or blood serum), it is called the Bence-Jones protein.
Dilated scalewort or Frullania dilatata grows mainly as a pioneer on trees with a moderately nutrient-rich bark. The species is somewhat drought-tolerant and can be found on free-standing trees, except in forests. Especially in full sun, the plants have their characteristic rust brown color. This moss experienced a decline in the last century due to air pollution, but is now common in almost all parts of The Netherlands. It is an attractive species, which is not easily overlooked in inventories. As a result, the distribution picture does suggest a greater number of occurrences than is actually the case: regularly there is only a single find per square section of land of 1 x 1 km.
Tempskya is an extinct genus of tree-shaped ferns, the fossils of which have so far only been found in Cretaceous layers. The Cretaceous is a geologic period and system that spans 79 million years from the end of the Jurassic period 145 million years ago to the beginning of the Paleogene period 66 million years ago.
In the video you will find some algae found in fens in the ‘Wortel Kolonie’ located in Belgium. The ‘Wortel Kolonie’ is a beautiful protected nature reserve with a complex of buildings that served as an asylum for vagrants long time ago. (Here you will find the information in Dutch, English, French and German).
This nature reserve contains a few shallow fens. On a summer day in July, some water samples were taken from two fens using a trawl net with a mesh size of 30 microns. Without examining these samples in depth, more than fifty different organisms, phyto- and zooplankton, were found. Only a few of them are shown in the video. In one of the algae we see a oogonium.
The names of the organisms in the video are deliberately omitted here, to give hydrobiology enthusiasts the opportunity to identify the organisms themselves.
The whelk or Buccinum undatum (Linnaeus, 1758) belongs to the snails (Gastropoda).
The whelk is a large, thick predatory snail with 7 or 8 turns. A deep seam runs between the turns. The mouth opening takes up almost half of the shell and ends in a sipho. On the surface there are horizontal ribs and clear vertical growth lines. Often there are also vertical ribs at the top of the shell. It grows up to 11 cm high and 7 cm wide. The whelk has yellowish-white with dark spots. Whelks washed ashore are often dark blue, because they have been lying on the bottom of the sea for a long time.
Vorticella is a genus of single celled organisms living in both marine- and freshwater habitats. The members of the vorticella genus are commonly referred to as bell animalcules because of their shape. The thing that makes bell animalcules unique are their long stalks which they use to attach themselves to a substrate, which could be things like rocks, twigs and even small animals. The stalks of vorticella resemble our muscle fibers but are able to contract a lot faster than our muscles are. If the cell gets disturbed, it’s able to contract the stalk with an impressive speed of up to 6 meters per second as a defence mechanism to get away from danger or possibly scare predators away.
The peregrine falcon is one of the fastest birds in the sky. During level flight, with motion generated by wing-beats alone, they can reach speeds between 60-100 km/h. This is one of the fastest known speeds for level flight.
Mentha spicata (Green Mint) is a low, creeping and rather invasive plant that is indispensable in a fragrant border. Mentha spicata blooms with small pale purple or pink flowers. It easily grows widely on all soil types and will certainly have to be kept under control. It is an herb with numerous uses, both kitchen use and medicinal. On the photo you can see covering hairs and glandular trichomes from which the typical aromatic substances are excreted.
