Ferns are a very ancient family of plants, thriving on Earth for two hundred million years before flowering plants evolved.
Have you ever looked at the underside of a fern and seen all of those tiny little bumps?
Those tiny bumps, called sporangia, encase the spores which are vital for fern reproduction, a more complicated reproduction process than plants with pollen.
Laura Southcott sent a part of a fern with sporangia to ASPEX Corporation for image analysis using the ASPEX Personal SEM.
Manual image analysis was performed on the fern using the ASPEX PSEM eXplorer. The customer had requested that ASPEX provide images, so reports were prepared using ASPEX Personal Image Print II (PIPTM).
Secondary electron detector (SED) images were collected under high vacuum conditions and 20 KeV. The sample was gold coated to eliminate any sample charging.
Like what you see? Check out the rest of our Personal SEM Image Gallery.
