The Virtual Petrified Wood Museum. Dedicated to the Exhibition and Educational Study of Permineralized Plant Material
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Permian: 299-251 Million Years Ago
Gallery: Brazil, South America
Psaronius
Tree Fern
Psaronius brasiliensis
Bieland, Maranhao Province, Brazil
Pedra de Fogo Formation
Permian
10 cm diameter
This Psaronius specimen exhibits great preservation and color. On closer inspection one can see agate and crystals lining the voids. The image below was taken with a Canon PowerShot SD770 IS Digital ELPH 10.0 MEGA PIXELS, cropped and resized in Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0. The image shows the central xylem strands and was taken in sunlight outside.
The close-ups below zoom in on a portion of the central xylem strand in the photo above and were taken at 30x and 40x using a Swift M29TZ Zoom Stereo Trinocular Microscope and a Moticam 2500. The microscopes upper halogen light was used for illumination. The images were processed using Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0. The largest xylem cells in the image measure 100 micrometers in diameter. Light blue agate separates the central xylem from layers of preserved phloem cells. On the right side of the image the phloem cells form a layer around the xylem strand.
The image below was taken with a Canon PowerShot SD770 IS Digital ELPH 10.0 MEGA PIXELS, cropped and resized in Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0. The image shows the transition zone between the vascular cylinder and the root mantle.

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