Aeschynanthus radicans, Getting a Closer look at the Lipstick Plant: Or, Why Science is Fun!

 Just to start us out... here is a flower from the Aeschynanthus radicans.

Usually most people know this plant as a "Lipstick Plant" because the bloom comes up from the blackish base (calyx) and emerges like a lady's lipstick.

This is the first cut. From here I'll make another cut that's about 1/16th of an inch thick to put under the scope.

 *Not all the photos are all that sharp and clear, this is the best I can do with the equipment I possess.

You can see the brown calyx ring, and then the bright red corolla ring and the start of where the ovary will attach.

 Another cut a bit further along....












And now you can see that we've definitely gotten to the ovary.

I'm not sure what the triangular shape with the empty middle is though....

 This shot shows the layers a little more clearly. If you use a bit of imagination and look very carefully at the center bit, you can see the forming seeds in the ovary. They are the darker marks. You'll notice that everything on a gesneriad has hair! Everything!!! Even the developing ovary.

 We're further along the flower now and up high enough to be getting to the top of the developing ovary.

We should also be getting into where some of the stamen are....

 And LOOKIE here! We don't have the dark calyx ring of tissue anymore, we have only the really pretty dark red corolla (petal) layer.

Do you notice in the upper right hand corner you CAN see the seeds forming in the ovary better but this is the cool part.... In the bottom middle of the photo you can see the lump of greenish tissue connected to the red corolla. It's where the stamen connect to the flower! If we had made the cut up any higher in the flower it will not be connected but be the independent stalk (the filament) that holds up the pollen sacs.

 

 A shot of the tip of the ovary in the bottom middle of the photo and the filaments in the upper mid to left of the photo. The red, hairy corolla is of course to the right.

 Here's a shot of the section on the slide to give you a better notion of how these relate to the magnified photos.

 The last cut was quite high up on the flower and really all that was left to see in cross section was what follows.....

The pollen sacs (anthers) on the cute pink filaments. These pollen sacs aren't quite ready to break all the way open yet, but you can see a little of the pollen sneaking out to the right hand side of the photo.

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