Thursday, November 11, 2021

Plant vs Fungus


 I picked up a leaf the other day and brought it to the laboratory to see what the black spots looked like under a microscope. The leaf was placed between two glass plates held taut with elastics, at perhaps 20X magnification? The leaf has light pink veins running through yellowish compartments of cells. The black spots appeared brown, and each one was contained within the compartments. Some areas had brown blobs surrounded by yellow, with hints of green. I think the yellow and pink areas are healthy leaf tissue, while the brown areas are the fungus (or virus?) infected areas. In the intermediate zones, the leaf is trying to protect itself by closing in around the infection as it tries to spread to the healthy areas. In the evening, I made a watercolour painting based on my memory of the image.

Plant vs. Fungus,  watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, November 2021

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