Please look at the selected pictures without prejudice but with free imagination! According to your background you will come up with quite different interpretations. Some of you may tend to interpret spherical forms at first glance as eggs; as symbols of the beginning of life. Triangular arrangements appear to be faces , paired ellipsoids form eyes, and the remnants of life can be classified as waste. For your interest in the real nature of the pictures finally refer to the legends. The pictures were made during microscopic investigations of bioindications, in particular reactions of plants to environmental (edaphic, climatic, antropogenic, biotic or abiotic) stress. Plant responses on the one hand depend on the nature of the stress, but on the other hand may be similar for different stresses, and therefore difficult to interpret. The cell size is determined by genetic factors and the conditions during cell growth. Narrowing of stomatal pores occurs when climatic factors such as temperature, humidity, light or wind are not optimal, but is also modified through the nutritional status of the plants or the ozone concentration in the air. Droplets of cell wall material exuded on the outer cell walls are found as an effect of ozone, fungus or spider mite infection; the same as on callus cells formed during grafting, and may therefore be a wounding reaction. The formation of oxalate crystals helps the plants to immobilize and thus detoxify excessive calcium ions. The outermost coating of coniferous needles with a wax layer protects them from desiccation. Microscopy detects the visit of infecting organisms e.g. spider mites, sapsucking insects or fungi. Too much stress, will finally lead to cell death. Nature, however, carefully recycles its own natural waste. Dead organic material is not useless, but constitutes the basis for new life. For example aphids live on leaves; aphid honeydew is a substrate for fungal growth or is collected by ants, which are eaten by birds, (as are the aphids by ladybirds) and the insects themselves bear fungal infections and transmit viruses or mycoplasma-like organisms to new plants. Needles shed after an aphid infection are colonized by microorganisms and decomposed by fungal hyphae, which, in turn are decomposed by bacteria, forming new humus, which is the substrate of new plant growth.
