Flowery Beginnings

What am I looking at?  

Here you can see several clusters of stems cells that will grow into the flower of a thale cress plant. Each cluster, or sphere, is a group of multiple cells (1). The colors in this image represent the distance each part of the image is from the viewer. Parts shown in yellow and gray are closer to the viewer, while those that are blue and purple are farther away.

Biology in the background  

Stem cells can become many different types of specialized cells once they undergo differentiation. Stem cells can be found in both plants and animals and play a key role in development, healing, reproduction, and many more processes. In flowering plants, when environmental conditions are right, a series of chemicals is released that send a signal to the stems cells to start transforming into the cells that will create a flower.

These stem cells are about 5 micrometers across, or roughly 15 times smaller than the width of a human hair.

Technique  

 This image was created using confocal microscopy.