Onion Sections Stained With Safrinen Red

My new stains were delivered last night and I just got a chance to use one of them today. These are Baby Onions sliced very thing with a wet double edge razor blade, then the slices put on a slide and one drop of Safrinen Red stain added and allowed to sit for 15 seconds, then washed with clean water from a cup, until all stain was gone, except what was absorbed by the plant.

All shots are roughly 100x at the sensor. I used a Canon T1i in Tv mode. The EXIF is intact.

1.

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neat series, Mitch

Thanks for looking Dean. Stains make all the difference, although slices still look cool without it.

Good shots of those Cell Walls....

Thanks Squirrelsnest, yeah, thats what stains are all about. I just got 5 new stains and this is the first one. Got 4 more to go.

Ah, brings me back to biology class! Well done, a nice change from bugs!

Thanks Paul. I am finding it amazing, what a stain will do. What's really amazing is that out of all the possible stains, early scientists spent years developing each successful one and combinations of stains to achieve a particular result. So what's really amazing is, they succeeded at all.

So these were from an onion? ..Cool!

Hi Kurt, these are very, very thin slices from what they call baby onions here. I made the slices with a double edge razorblade, hand held, from the part of the onion where it just starts to turn from white to green. In pic #3 above, I think the green part is just where the different types of cells start to grow from the white root area. The stains here just highlight certain parts of the cells, turning them different colors.

nice series Kurt .. cells look empty, but then, Onions are pretty much water, aren't they?

You need to find yourself an Amoeba ... I bet we'd get to see some interesting innards with your setup

Thanks Freddy. In image #4, the gray "cells" are not cells at all, but holes. The slices are across the onion stalk, so we are looking down the tube of the stalk in cross section. Those holes would carry water to the top parts of the plant. Some of the cells are only stiffeners also. The stain actually only attaches itself to certain parts of the cells, and changes it's color. The cell walls will be one color, while the nucleus will be another, and the starches will be something else, although I haven't found the list for what Safrinen does.

Amoeba? My favorites, and I have a lot of Amoeba video on my YouTube link if your interested. They are much more interesting when they move, than just a still of them, like the one below.

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That's some pretty parenchyma you got there

Thanks Shane, the stains are the secret weapon. I have several more to try, and there just isn't enough time in the day.

very nice Mitch, sure looks like a lot of work! Well done!

Thanks for looking Bret. Actually, it's surprisingly easy, once you are set up for it. All you need is double edge razor blades for the slices, an eyedropper for the stain and a glass slide to put them on. The work comes when you want to mix two or more stains, then you have to spend a lot of time doing it.