Lemon Rind Oil Gland — Flavedo Pore at 4:1 Macro
61.90 €
A lemon rind’s outer flavedo layer photographed at 4:1 macro — the essential oil glands visible as orange-yellow spherical voids between the surface cells, the gland ducts that rupture during zesting releasing the characteristic fragrance.
Description
Citrus rind essential oil is stored in large schizogenous oil glands in the flavedo layer — the coloured outer portion of the peel. The glands are visible to the naked eye as small pits in the rind surface, but at 4:1 macro reproduction their full structure is legible: spherical voids, 0.3 to 1mm in diameter, surrounded by thin-walled secretory cells that produced and accumulated the essential oil through their active secretory phase. When a gland is sectioned by slicing the rind, the essential oil is released — this image captures a fresh-cut rind section that has revealed several intact glands (filled with pale yellow essential oil) and one ruptured gland (the oil released and spreading into the cut surface). The surface cells of the flavedo between the glands show their interlocking cell wall geometry and the orange-yellow carotenoid pigments that give the rind its characteristic colour.
