Cross section through a young stem of Arabidopsis thaliana

The cross section 90 µm thick has been made with a Vibratome in the basal part of a young stem after embedding in 7% agarose to facilitate the obtention of sections. The sections have been stained with toluidin blue (0,05 % in buffer citrate). In the pith constituted of large cells of parenchyma there are 8 vascular bundles on a single ring with the protoxylem towards the center and the phloem towards the periphery of the section.
ep: épiderme; pc : parenchyme cortical; m: moelle

Part of the section showing a vascular bundle and the parenchyma of the pith with small spaces between cells (red arrows).