What Grows On Your Root?

Your Duckweed root? It looks like this root is dead or injured and dying, as other obviously living roots only have a few algae growing on them. Possibly there is something in the living plant that retards algae growth, or the maintenance bugs keep the live ones cleaned off.

1. This is the edge of one leaf at 200x.

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Cool shots Mitch. Thanks for sharing them.

Thanks Keith. You never know what your going to find in a drop of water.

neat series, Mitch

Interesting stuff
Brian v.

Amazing stuff Mitch, Love to see it.

Tony.

Thanks Dean, Brian and Tony. I almost wish I had got some video of this, cause some of those thing do move, although really slowly. The square brown things on the stem in #3 and seen from the side in #4, are a form of diatom I think, and they do move over the surface of the root like grazing cows. Very slowly, you have to watch them closely to see them move, but they do.

Mitch, you're taking me back to my botany classes Loving the detailed cell structure in this series.

Thanks Freddy, The cell structure was the thing that surprised me most. I have not looked through a microscope for 50 years and all I remember was a tiny round white dot and not much else. When I got this modern scope, I was very pleasantly surprised to see not only the cells, but the nucleus and the chloroplasts inside it. I'm for sure enjoying it.

Very cool shots. As for the algae, I do know some people use it in their aquariums to get rid of green water algae blooms. I believe it is because it grows so darn fast and out competes the algae for nutrients. I'm certainly no botanist though. But it is a double edged sword as then the duckweed is almost as hard to get rid of as algae.

Very cool series!
Thanks for sharing them.

Thanks for looking Crimzon and FZT. Duckweed will grow very fast, but one thing about it is, you can easily see it and it floats on the surface. I initially put it in there last year, around beginning of October and it didn't do much at all. Just kind of sat there all winter. Then, this spring, it took off and covered the surface of the tank. I have since scooped off most of it and threw it out in the yard, and it has grown back again.

Before the Duckweed took over though, the water in the tank was clouded and full of the microbes I wanted to look at. Now it is clear, like a weak tea. I suspect that is from a saturation of oxygen in the water killing off the microbes.

If I were say, an aquariest that liked goldfish, I would grow one tank of duckweed and add it periodically to the goldfish tank, to help clean their water, and as a food.

nice series...thnks for the info for goldfish tank...

Thanks for looking Rakesh. My neighbor had a goldfish pond with duckweed in it, they were always eating it. Big goldfish and Koi though.

Hey Mitch;

Since you're the photomacrography expert, what do you think about this setup for taking microscopic images:

* National Optical Model 163-PH Microscope
* Digital Camera Adapter

Would that be similar to the type of setup you use? I am thinking of investing in similar equipment within the next year, as I am compiling a "Florida Spiders" book, and certain IDs require microscopic examination, which I am learning how to do thanks to the guidance of a 40-year expert on Florida spiders.

I was wondering if, in your opinion, the above would be a good equipment combination choice to achieve the kind of excellent detailed results you are continuously showing.

Thanks for your help and input!

Jack


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