On Monday June 8th I decided to look at any of my Show Low specimens that looked fresh enough to still absorb dye under a microscope. I looked at six specimens and only one had anything that looked like an endophyte. A big problem I was having is seeing inside the leave of plants have have a low surface area such as pine needles and juniper. The shape of the leaves requires a lot of light pass through a dense area making things blurry and dark. It was also difficult to cut the leaves so I think I need to learn how to clear plant tissues using chemicals.
On the 8th I also noticed that one of my previous plates had some white fungal growth on it. The hyphae were clearly coming out of the interior of the leaf. There has been no evidence of contamination on any of the plates so I know my new sanitation method is working well.
I found another endophyte in a sample from a tree near D building, I'm not sure what the species is. As I was walking to the lab on Monday they were trimming the trees and I picked up a sample. I think it maybe some kind of African Acacia tree but I have no idea. The leaves were so covered in debris that it was difficult to see much inside the leaves. However in more than one place I found had what looked like fruiting bodies connected to hyphae most likely on the surface of the leaf instead of inside it. I plated some samples anyway.
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