macula

The macula or macula lutea (from Latin macula, "spot" + lutea, "yellow") is an oval-shaped pigmented area near the center of the retina of the human eye. It has a diameter of around . The macula is subdivided into the umbo, foveola, foveal avascular zone (FAZ), fovea, parafovea, and perifovea areas. After death or enucleation (removal of the eye) the macula appears yellow, a color that is not visible in the living eye except when viewed with light from which red has been filtered. The anatomical macula at is much larger than the clinical macula which, at , corresponds to the anatomical fovea. The clinical macula is seen when viewed from the pupil, as in ophthalmoscopy or retinal photography. The anatomical macula is defined histologically in terms of having two or more layers of ganglion cells.