Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) (lower leaf surface), 2011 by Louisa Howard, Electron Microscope Facility at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.

The structure in this image might look as though they were growing in some alien forest, but they come from the leaf of one of the most homely and familiar of plants; the tomato. Under a scanning electron microscope, the hairs on the leaf are revealed as being of two different types. The pinheads of the 'mushroom' are secretory glands, which exude an oily compound, which gives the plant the highly distinctive odour, familiar to anyone who grows tomotoes. The oil in the hairs acts as an important deterrent against foraging herbivores.