Clearing, cuticle removal, and staining for the fertile bracts (lemmas and paleas) of grass anthoecia.
The epidermis of the bracts enclosing the flower of grasses contains epidermal cell patterns which are indicative of phylogenetic and systematic relationships among taxa. Treating the heavily cutinized anthoecial bracts (fertile lemma and palea) with 10% NaOH results in the removal of sufficient cuticle to allow examination of the cells of the epidermis. After clearing and removal of the cuticle, the bracts are bleached, washed, dehydrated, and if studied by light microscopy, stained in 2% chlorazol black E and mounted in Diaphane; or, if studied by scanning electron microscopy, dried by the critical-point method and either left uncoated or coated with a film of various conductive metals.
D006652:Histological Techniques; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D010802:Phylogeny; D006109:Poaceae / Q000145:classification / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D013194:Staining and Labeling