Ertiocx's assorted carnivores

Ertiocx

Carnivorous Plant Addict
Underside of a Nepenthes pitcher?

*Edit* Underside of a Nepenthes pitcher lid is what I meant to say.

Pretty close!

This is the inner surface of a nepenthes pitcher seen at 200x magnification.
The crescent shaped structures are secretory glands.

Objective: Plan-Apochromat 20x/0.8 Air

Filters:
  • DAPI: Ex 359/Em 461
  • Cy5: Ex 649/Em 670
  • Cy3.5: Ex 580/Em 598
  • FITC: Ex 495/Em 519
1661451466922.png
 
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Ertiocx

Carnivorous Plant Addict
So I managed to get parts of a N. veitchii lid under a coverslip.

Filters (Excitation wavelength/Emission wavelength):
  • DAPI (Blue): Ex 359/Em 461
  • Cy5 (Red): Ex 649/Em 670
  • Cy3.5 (Yellow/Orange): Ex 580/Em 598
  • FITC (Green): Ex 495/Em 519
Here's one of the big nectar glands on the lower surface of a lid viewed at 200x magnification (Plan-Apochromat 20x/0.8):
1661561763463.png
  • It's a very large structure at around 200 um long and 100 um wide.
  • The aperture is surrounded by very small cells that glow green and red.
  • The cells inside the nectary glow bright orange and green. They're full of secretory vesicles.
  • The nectary itself is a pit about 50 um deep that's lined with small secretory cells.
  • There are only a couple of these on the underside of the lid, maybe 10-20. They're located near the middle of the lid near the hinge.
Here's a different sort of structure at 200x magnification (Plan-Apochromat 20x/0.8):
1661562041719.png
  • These deflated basketball-looking structures are all over the underside of the lid, but particularly around the edges of the lid.
  • They protrude upwards from the surface maybe 15 um or so.
  • It measures about 70 um long and 60 um wide.
  • The cells in this area each contain a structure that glows bright blue. They almost look like hoescht-stained nuclei, but there are no stains applied.
Here's something from the upper surface of the lid (Plan-Apochromat 20x/0.8):
1661562332989.png
  • I thought this was some sort of mite at first. It's not.
  • The upper surface of the lid is covered in fine hairs. This is one of them.
  • The hairs are apparently very finely branched.
 
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Ertiocx

Carnivorous Plant Addict
Microscope might be broken but I'm still able to get a couple photos out of it.

Here's some water and a trap from @Lloyd Gordon 's Utricularia mat:

Water's full of parameciums, algae, nematodes, maybe a rotifer of some sort?
1664760696602.png

Whatever they are, the Utricularia traps are full of them. Guess there's no need to worry about feeding this plant.
1664760770243.png
 
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