Locating water‐soluble vital stains in plant tissues by freeze‐substitution and resin‐embedding

Abstract

SUMMARYVital stains, moving in the transpiration stream in leaf apoplast, may be kept in place through freezing, freeze‐substitution, embedding and sectioning, to reveal their position in the living plant. This technique has been used to study the details of movement of water out of the veins of leaves, and has wide application in histochemistry with water‐labile dyes, and for following dye movements in protoplasm. Patterns of water movement in the leaf of Zea mays L. are presented as an example.