Some unusual staining properties of tannic acid in plants

Maize root tips were fixed in glutaraldehyde fixatives containing tannic acid and then processed for electron microscopy. Under these conditions, tannic acid selectively stained the contents of the Golgi apparatus secretory vesicles of some outer root cap cells, the cell walls of all cells, and substances in, and adjacent to, intercellular connections of mature primary walls and of secondary walls. Intercellular connections of the young primary walls were not stained. Plasma membranes, and substances associated with the outer leaflets of the plasma membranes, were also stained. Tannic acid-positive material was associated with the cell plate vesicles of forming walls but very little, or none, was associated with the Golgi apparatus vesicles of dividing cells.