Next semester I plan to have my botany students investigate the
anatomy of an assigned plant. As part of that, I'd like them to look at
the patterns of epidermal cells and stomata. My references (old plant
microtechnique books), say that very few plants give good epidermal
peels, and they suggest boiling leaves to loosen the epidermis. I'm
afraid this will make everything that's not highly lignified or succlent
into cooked spinach, and I doubt I can get a peel from that.
I hope that someone on this list has a method that most students can
learn in a short period of time, requires few (none is better) dangerous
chemicals, is not too time consuming, and can be used on a wide variety
of plants. I'm not worried about making permanent slides. Also, I
don't mind fixing things myself, but would prefer it to be a short
process.
Doug
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Douglas P. Jensen
Assistant Professor of Biology
Converse College
580 East Main Street
Spartanburg, South Carolina 29302
(864)596-9123
fax: (864)596-9201
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