Research Training Program

Jamie Duda
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA

Robert Faden, Ph.D.
Supervising Scientist
Department of Botany

"I am pleased with my experience at the Smithsonian. This summer has helped me to define my goals for the future."

Anatomical Experimentation of Paraffin Techniques on Commelinaceae

This project involved work on Commelinaceae anatomy with Bob Faden. Stan Yankowski assisted in the anatomy laboratory. Cross-sectional slides were produced for nine plants of the family and were used to compare different methods of killing and fixing fresh specimens, different rehydration techniques on dried plants, and anatomical characters between genuses. Preparing the slides took most of the 10 weeks. Stan helped with the techniques for embedding, sectioning and making slides, and staining and coverslipping. Photos were also taken of the slides. Finally, a summary of the anatomical characters of the nine plants was produced along with comparisons between the methods.