Nail varnish impressions of stomata

One way way to 'see' stomata on a leaf is to take a nail varnish impression of it.

Method

1. Paint about 1cm² of the underside of the leaf with transparent nail varnish, or PVA glue.
2. Allow to dry out thoroughly.It takes about 30mins.
3. Then peel off and place on a microscope slide.

The stomata leave clearly visible impressions in the nail varnish.If you use a graticule slide you can count how many stomata are on the leaf. In school biology labs it is a standard experiment to count the stomata on leaves of different speacies and try to explain the differences.

See also: Stoma, Care of living organisms, School Biology experiments and demonstrations, How-to's