ABSTRACT
Plant histology can be defined as the study of the microscopic structures or characteristics of cells and their assembly and arrangement into tissues and organs. Several histological techniques are commonly used for examining plant tissues, each providing somewhat similar gross information, but differing in resolution of details and the media in which the samples are prepared. These include techniques for brightfield and fluorescent microscopy, in which specimens can be prepared for cutting into thick sections (15-40 micrometers [µm]) either without a stabilizing medium (fresh sections), in cryofluids (frozen sections), or embedded in paraffin-like materials or in various formulations of plastic. Other techniques that employ electron microscopy either do not require a specialized embedding medium for specimen preparation (scanning electron microscopy) or use samples embedded in plastics (transmission electron microscopy) that can be cut into ultrathin sections (65-100 nanometers [nm]). Explanation of the details involved in all of these techniques is beyond the scope of this chapter.
