Even More Micrographs...

More fun with the EyeClops! This morning I took the thing outside, and tried imaging a few pieces of Mother Nature. First was a granite rock, at right (100x). It looks basically like some sand under a magnifying glass, with some dirt on it.

Next I tried a moss (below left), one of our chaparral mosses that appear in thick layers on rocks as if by magic just after it rains. Just before the rain it looked like some black dirt on the rock, or even like a thick layer of weathered black paint. Within minutes after it starts raining, it turns bright green. At 100x it looks like your lawn! The two right hand micrographs are lichen, at 200x and 100x. These lichen are pale green, and very common around here on granite rocks.



Finally, I liberated a leaf from a native sage. If you're not familiar with sage, their leaves are pale green and they are ever so slightly “fuzzy”. The left hand micrograph is of the back of the leaf, across its spine, at 100x. The next three are of the front of the leave, at 400x, 200x, and 100x. You can see that the entire surface of the leaf is covered by stubby little hairs, growing in interlocking tufts.