Micro-World: December 2016

sweet potato peel

sweet potato peel 400X

When I first took a look at the peel under the microscope, what fascinated me the most was that the purple pigment of the sweet potato was actually not covering each cell but rather, surrounded them.

sweet potato peel 40X

As seen in these pictures, sweet potatoes are generally known to be composed of fibers and different types of vitamins. Here the peel has numerous fibers covering the purple pigment which surround each cell.This shows that while we tend to discard the outer layer before consuming the golden body, there are significant reasons to why you should also add the peels to your meal.

sweet potato peel 100X

rotten apple

I tend to automatically state a rotting apple is bad for us. But what is causing apples to rot and why is it harmful for us to consume them?

rotten apple 40X

While I didn't think at first that penicillium had anything to do with a rotting apple, it turns out that Penicillium expansum and Monilinia fructigena are the most common fungi that cause damage to fruits. Around 70% of all plant diseases are caused by fungi (those such as major crop diseases).

rotten apple 400X

What you see in this picture is what seems to be penicillium expansum also called blue mold. While they aren't exactly blue in color as the fungi is supposed to be, they contain the same structure of a tree like shape.

rotten apple 1000X oil

puzzle flower

red flower petal 40X

One of the main functions a flower petal has is to attract insects to the flower in order for pollination to occur. While the microscope caused this petal to lose its red color in the picture, generally, the colors petals have are actually from a variety of pigments like carotenoids.

red flower petal 40X

Carotenoids are generally stored in chromoplasts (organelles seen inside of the cells). Following, anthocyanins are water soluble pigments that are one of the key pigments that emit the flower's color as seen in these pictures.

red flower petal 100X

For flowers that rely on insects to spread pollen to other flowers, bright petal colors are absolutely necessary because it is one of the main ways insects are attracted to that plant.