Wild Mustard Plant (Weed)

[JimT]

TS of a stem of a wild mustard weed. Section was stained with toloidine blue and shows the epidermis, cortex, phloem fibers, cambium, xylem, secondary xylem, and the pith.

First image is with the 10X obj. second with the 20X, and third with the 40X.

[billben74]

More great sections. Fantastic detail via the excellent staining.

[Rodney]

Very nice and interesting photo`s, I esp. like the first and second photo.
Rodney

[JimT]

Thanks guys.

I esp. like the first and second photo.

Me too but I wanted to add a little higher magnification which is not as good as the first two but shows a little more cell structure of the cambium.

I will have to try another mustard green soon. Lots of interesting structure.

[apochronaut]

This is a common weed inhabiting farm fields, where the crop is managed in more traditional ways. Modern agricultural techniques have limited it's incidence lately in industrial crops, except for Canola it's close relative, where the similar seed size, makes screening difficult .

About 25 years ago, most of the screenings at harvest from our wheat were wild mustard, so I cleaned several 25 lb. bags of them and ground the seed into mustard flour. It made a very intense, dark, yellow/grey mustard that we actually sold for quite a few years. The young greens of the plant are also quite edible , similar to rapine, another relative.

The little dark circles in your excellent images; are those oil droplets? The plant is quite oily.

[zzffnn]

Nice work and beautiful image, JimT!

[Rodney]

I never have tried the wild mustard plant, but many people down this way eat mustard and grow it from seed along with turnips. Now those turnip greens have roots to them and they can be large.
The smell of cooking off the turnip greens and roots can be a little bad but the benefits of eating them are worth the smell. I can`t remember if anyone has tried a turnip root section.
Rodney

[JimT]

The little dark circles in your excellent images; are those oil droplets? The plant is quite oily.

Either oil or air bubbles. Not sure.

Coming from the South we eat collard greens and turnip greens but we think mustard greens taste is too strong

[billbillt]

Hi Jim,

You present another set of wonderful photos.. I enjoy looking at them...

BillT

[JimT]

Thank you Bill (and everyone).

[hkv]

Very nice! I like #2 best.

[mrsonchus]

Wow Jim - super-set this! The TBO has really given you some great differentiation too.
I really like image #1 myself - loads of structural detail, superbly plump and fresh-looking pith-parenchyma - so hard to preserve that state with paraffin processing....

These are another treat, and yet another new and interesting subject to consider, must have a little read about the genus if I get a chance my friend. Thanks for a really nice set Jim - I don't suppose..... maybe just a little.... you know you must give us more (ahem, did someone whisper LS.... ) Jim!

Nice work Jim, a real treat.

[gekko]

Excellent work and very beautiful images.

[JimT]

Thank you Gekko. Good to see you are back

John, I tried an LS and it was not very good but I will try again.

[vasselle]

Bonjour
Très beau sujet avec de jolies photos