Elodea Cells: Plant Cell
Purpose: The purpose of this lab investigation is to prepare a wet mount of an elodea leaf in order to examine a plant cell.
Materials and Methods: This experiment requires clean glass slides, cover slips, elodea, forceps, droppers, microscopes and lens paper.
Prepare a wet mount using one leaf from the elodea vine. Use forceps to remove a leaf from the elodea leaf and place it onto the slide. Add a drop of water and then lower a cover slip over the leaf and water. (Lower the cover slip by first placing one edge against the drop of water at about 45 degrees.)
Experiment: Find the cells on low power, but make your observations using the high power objective. Be sure to adjust the lighting with the iris diaphragm.
Locate the following: cell wall, central vacuole, chloroplasts, and cytoplasm. Often the cytoplasm and chloroplasts will be moving around within the cell. This is a process called cytoplasmic streaming.
Make a sketch of a typical cell below, and label it. Assume the box is the cell wall.
Conclusion: What features did you observe that are unique to the plant cell?