Buttercup Root - 40x (Autofluorescence)
The digital image presented above is a reconstruction of thick optical sections of buttercup root imaged by means of autofluorescence. Buttercup is the common name given to a variety of flowering plants belonging to the genus Ranunculus. Though poisonous to cattle and other animals, buttercups are the favored food plant of several types of caterpillars. As in most other dicots, phloem and xylem in the roots of buttercups do not form bundles. Instead the xylem forms a solid mass from which several arms extend, and the phloem is located between the extensions.