“Every blade in the field – Every leaf in
the forest –
lays down its life in its season as beautifully as it was taken
up.”
Henry David Thoreau
Stomates are pores on a leaf’s surface
that provide an interface between the leaf and its surrounding environment by
allowing carbon dioxide to enter the leaf and water vapor and oxygen to exit.
The density, size, and distribution of stomates on a leaf can impact
photosynthetic rates.
This past spring and summer I took measurements of
photosynthetic rates from several species found at the Arnold Arboretum.
Having fun measuring photosynthetic rates!
I also collected leaves from each of the
species to take a look at the stomates under the microscope. This can be done
using leaf peels, which are made by painting leaf surfaces with clear nail
polish, or with bleached leaves which have had the color removed from them.
Here you can see the leaf being measured clamped in the machine
With this project, I’m hoping to find a
correlation between the photosynthetic rates and anatomy in leaves found in
different light environments around the Arnold Arboretum.
The ovular openings pictured here are stomates under the microscope
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