We'll make a slide to view the stomata
and the epidermal cells on the surface of the leaves
using clear nail polish, sticky tape, a glass slide, some leaves and a microscope.
First we'll take a leaf, such as this one, and take our clear nail polish and paint it on the surface of the leaf.
You don't have to cover all the surface of the leaf, just a small section that you want to look at.
We recommend you use clear nail polish so that you can see through it when you view it under the microscope,
and also we recommend that you first try the underside of the leaf.
So we now just let that dry, and while we're letting that dry we can do a few more
um and look at a few other leaves, just while we're waiting for it to dry.
Once they're dry, we can take our sticky tape, take a small section,
press it down over the leaf over where the nail polish is and gently press down.
Now, ideally you want to press down so that you don't get too many air bubbles (underneath) underneath it
because that makes it more difficult to see under the microscope.
Now we gently lift up the tape,
taking the nail polish with it.
We now take a glass slide,
and put our nail polish and sticky tape on the slide and gently push down,
doing it in a way to again avoid air bubbles because that makes it harder to see through the microscope.
When we look through the microscope,
we should be able to see an impression of the surface of the leaf.
We might be able to see stomata, made of pairs of elongated guard cells surrounding a central pore.
Around the stomata, we will also be able to see the epidermal pavement cells locked together.
We might also be able to see some hairs on the surface of the leaf, called trichomes.
You can use this technique to look at and
measure the number and size of stomata
on the surface of leaves.
