red again

I know I had once done a post on a comparison between poinsettias and roses. However, an interesting discovery prompted me to post about these bright flowers once again.

poinsettia 2016 100X

One thing I thought was fascinating was that while a poinsettia's cell looks quite flat and red when viewed through an ordinary microscope, it showed a 3D image of clear cells when I shone an illuminator onto the slide! As seen below, each cell looked as if they were clear marbles instead of red cells!

poinsettia red leaf 40Xilluminator

Another interesting discovery was when I saw that while the poinsettia petal's original color was bright red, it began to change to a pinkish color after a few hours. An assumption I made was that the petal began losing its color after I took it off the original plant to examine it.

poinsettia red leaf 1st picture 40X



poinsettia red leaf 1st picture 400X

 

poinsettia red leaf 1st picture 100X

An interesting find is that while the poinsettia's petal changed color to an unusual pink, it turns out the plants require complete darkness (not even a nightlight should be on!) for around 14 hours a night in order to keep the red color on them. 

poinsettia red leaf with illuminator 1hour after 100X
 These are the illuminated cells zoomed in. In my opinion they seemed like pink blobs of gel as well!

poinsettia red leaf 1hour after 40X