Prepare a temporary mount of any leaf peel to observe the stomata draw their picture? Write a short note on the same. (AS 5)

To prepare a temporary mount of leaf peel to show its stomata. For this you need leaf of a plant, forceps, watch glass, slide, coverslip, brush, needles, safranin, glycerin, and microscope.

Procedure:

i. Peel off the leaf from it’s under surface and put the peel in a watch glass containing water.

ii. Add a few drops of saffron stain into the watch glass to stain the peel.

iii. Take out the stained peel on the cleaned slide.

iv. Remove the excess stain from the slide.

v. Put a drop of glycerin on the slide over the peeled cover it gently with coverslip without air bubbles.

vi. Observe the slide under the microscope.

Observations:

i. The epidermis is seen in the mount. It appears as a single layer of cells without intracellular spaces.

ii. Minute pores (openings) are seen embedded in between epidermal cells.

Inference:

i. The minute pores seen in the temporary mount are stomata.

ii. Each stoma is surrounded by two bean-shaped cells called guard cells.

Stomata are minute apertures (openings) present on the surface of the leaf. Stomata are generally more on the lower epidermis. Each stoma is surrounded by two bean-shaped cells called guard cells. The inner wall facing pore is thicker than the outer wall. The turgidity of guard cells controls the opening and closing of stomata. Stomata help in exchange of gases and water vapours between the atmosphere-land leaf.