Does it Fluoresce? – Ageratum flower

Posted On: Wednesday, October 22, 2014

In another blog post I talked about fluorescence in a begonia that I looked at under the stereo microscope while I was in St. Louis for the annual meeting of the Midwest Society for Developmental Biology. During the same meeting I stepped outside the building and grabbed a cluster of flowers from an Ageratum sp. plant.

These flowers are a fairly uniform light purple color and I have to admit that my expectations for what I would see in fluorescence were not too high. Much to my surprise (and pleasure) they were absolutely stunning – bright fluorescence from the pollen and beautiful orange highlights in the flower center.

(Click on image for larger view)

This experience once again reinforces what I have come to learn through this kind of pure exploration. Keep your mind open and don’t hesitate to look at anything you can, because the hidden beauty of fluorescence lurks everywhere.

Equipment:

• Motic SMZ 168 trinocular stereo microscope
• NIGHTSEA Model SFA Stereo Microscope Fluorescence Adapter with the Royal Blue excitation/emission set
• White light head for SFA
• Canon EOS Rebel T2i
• Camera adapter from Martin Microscope
• NIGHTSEA Eclipse MicroTent™

Camera settings:

• Exposure time
  • Fluorescence – 1.0 sec
  • White light – 1/60 sec
• White balance
  • Fluorescence – Cloudy
  • White light – Auto
• ISO
  • 400 for all images