Evening microscopy - Quillworts

When I flew to Halifax for work this past week, part of my task was to search for rare plants. I found a potential rare plant, but it is impossible to identify to species without examining microscopic parts of the plant. In this case: megaspores.  Megaspores are often the only way to identify the cryptic plant group known as Quillworts.  

I was lucky to find this plant with an intact sporangium and even luckier to find megaspores within it.  These things are so fucking tiny.  I tossed the sampled tissue into a vial and went on my way. 

My results based on megaspore size (roughly half of a millimetre): Tuckerman's Quillwort. Rare - but not a species of conservation concern.  

This is botany.