Dear Rawat ji, I was able to get pictures of the lime pits and their calcium oxalate secretions in *Saxifraga *that you wanted to see. I am sharing the pictures in a separate thread...
Regards Vijayasankar ------------------------------------------------------------------- Vijayasankar Raman, Ph.D. National Center for Natural Products Research University of Mississippi On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 11:25 AM, Vijayasankar <vijay.botan...@gmail.com>wrote: > Thank you so much Prashant ji, Garg ji, Dinesh ji, Nidhan ji, Gurcharan ji > and Rawat ji, for your nice words. > > Rawat ji, we have few species of Saxifraga in our repository. When > possible I will try to see if I can find the lime pits in any of those > species, and share the SEM pictures to you. > > > Regards > > Vijayasankar > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > Vijayasankar Raman, Ph.D. > National Center for Natural Products Research > University of Mississippi > > > On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 10:21 AM, D.S Rawat > <drdsrawat.alpin...@gmail.com>wrote: > >> SEM pictures present a plant word unseen by naked eyes, thus revealing >> interesting information. Here these crystals are similar to 'needle ice' >> formed during early or late season in alpine zones. Calcium oxalate >> deposition is a characteristic feature of a section of Saxifraga genus >> known as 'Kabschia section' which have leaves with 1-many lime secreting >> glands often referred as lime pits or simply pits on adaxial surface. >> I wish I could see the structure and secretion of calcium oxalate in >> Saxifraga species. >> Beautiful picture and great expertise mastered here. >> DSRawat Pantnagar >> >> >> On Monday, January 6, 2014 9:54:42 AM UTC+5:30, Vijayasankar wrote: >>> >>> >>> * Flora Picture of the Year 2013 * >>> Dear friends, >>> >>> Here is my 'Flora Picture of 2013'! Although this is not colorful, it is >>> one of my favorite SEM shots. >>> >>> Calcium oxalate crystals are present in almost all kinds of tissues in >>> more than 75% of the flowering plant families. They are also found in other >>> plant groups. This raphide crystal is one of the commonly occurring five >>> main types of calcium oxalate crystals. >>> >>> The young raphide bundle in the attached picture (magnified 800x) >>> contains about 200 needles kept together by thick mucilage. >>> >>> Raphide crystals play multiple roles in plants including protection from >>> herbivory, calcium regulation, removal of toxic oxalate etc. etc. Since the >>> type and distribution of these crystals in plants are tissue specific and >>> species-specific, they are helpful in plant identification and taxonomy. >>> >>> Have you experienced the painful itchiness in mouth after consuming >>> certain types of tubers/corms (such as Amorphophallus and Colocasia)? That >>> is due to these sharply pointed raphide crystals that poke, prick and hurt >>> the soft tissues in the mouth and tongue. There are millions of such >>> bundles of raphides in those corms. The needles are variously shaped and >>> sharply pointed at both the ends/tips and can be up to 0.2 mm long. >>> >>> The crystals dissolve in acidic (low pH levels) medium, hence we cook >>> the tubers/corms in sour-tasting fluid (such as tamarind juice) to kill the >>> crystals and also to make the food tastier :) >>> >>> Thank you >>> [image: >>> raphides]<http://www.flickr.com/photos/vijayasankar_raman/11790227975/> >>> >>> >>> Regards >>> >>> Vijayasankar >>> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> Vijayasankar Raman, Ph.D. >>> National Center for Natural Products Research >>> University of Mississippi >>> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "efloraofindia" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to indiantreepix+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> To post to this group, send email to indiantreepix@googlegroups.com. >> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/indiantreepix. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >> > > Regards Vijayasankar ------------------------------------------------------------------- Vijayasankar Raman, Ph.D. National Center for Natural Products Research University of Mississippi On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 11:25 AM, Vijayasankar <vijay.botan...@gmail.com>wrote: > Thank you so much Prashant ji, Garg ji, Dinesh ji, Nidhan ji, Gurcharan ji > and Rawat ji, for your nice words. > > Rawat ji, we have few species of Saxifraga in our repository. When > possible I will try to see if I can find the lime pits in any of those > species, and share the SEM pictures to you. > > > Regards > > Vijayasankar > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > Vijayasankar Raman, Ph.D. > National Center for Natural Products Research > University of Mississippi > > > On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 10:21 AM, D.S Rawat > <drdsrawat.alpin...@gmail.com>wrote: > >> SEM pictures present a plant word unseen by naked eyes, thus revealing >> interesting information. Here these crystals are similar to 'needle ice' >> formed during early or late season in alpine zones. Calcium oxalate >> deposition is a characteristic feature of a section of Saxifraga genus >> known as 'Kabschia section' which have leaves with 1-many lime secreting >> glands often referred as lime pits or simply pits on adaxial surface. >> I wish I could see the structure and secretion of calcium oxalate in >> Saxifraga species. >> Beautiful picture and great expertise mastered here. >> DSRawat Pantnagar >> >> >> On Monday, January 6, 2014 9:54:42 AM UTC+5:30, Vijayasankar wrote: >>> >>> >>> * Flora Picture of the Year 2013 * >>> Dear friends, >>> >>> Here is my 'Flora Picture of 2013'! Although this is not colorful, it is >>> one of my favorite SEM shots. >>> >>> Calcium oxalate crystals are present in almost all kinds of tissues in >>> more than 75% of the flowering plant families. They are also found in other >>> plant groups. This raphide crystal is one of the commonly occurring five >>> main types of calcium oxalate crystals. >>> >>> The young raphide bundle in the attached picture (magnified 800x) >>> contains about 200 needles kept together by thick mucilage. >>> >>> Raphide crystals play multiple roles in plants including protection from >>> herbivory, calcium regulation, removal of toxic oxalate etc. etc. Since the >>> type and distribution of these crystals in plants are tissue specific and >>> species-specific, they are helpful in plant identification and taxonomy. >>> >>> Have you experienced the painful itchiness in mouth after consuming >>> certain types of tubers/corms (such as Amorphophallus and Colocasia)? That >>> is due to these sharply pointed raphide crystals that poke, prick and hurt >>> the soft tissues in the mouth and tongue. There are millions of such >>> bundles of raphides in those corms. The needles are variously shaped and >>> sharply pointed at both the ends/tips and can be up to 0.2 mm long. >>> >>> The crystals dissolve in acidic (low pH levels) medium, hence we cook >>> the tubers/corms in sour-tasting fluid (such as tamarind juice) to kill the >>> crystals and also to make the food tastier :) >>> >>> Thank you >>> [image: >>> raphides]<http://www.flickr.com/photos/vijayasankar_raman/11790227975/> >>> >>> >>> Regards >>> >>> Vijayasankar >>> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> Vijayasankar Raman, Ph.D. >>> National Center for Natural Products Research >>> University of Mississippi >>> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "efloraofindia" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to indiantreepix+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> To post to this group, send email to indiantreepix@googlegroups.com. >> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/indiantreepix. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >> > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "efloraofindia" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to indiantreepix+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to indiantreepix@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/indiantreepix. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
