Cytoplasmic Streaming

Elodea is a water plant whose thin leaves are only two cell layers thick. This 1000X magnified view focuses midway through these layers of cells. The central space of each cell is occupied by a huge central vacuole, around which you can see cytoplasmic streaming. In the stream of cytosol, you can also see mitochondria. Chloroplasts, the larger, pigmented organelles, are also involved in the streaming, but they don’t move as freely because of their size.