The adjacent image shows three erythroid cells, two polychromatophilic normoblasts on the sides and a basophilic normoblasts between the two cells.
The color of cytoplasm of erythroid cells is balance between blue staining due to ribosomes and pink-red staining of haemoglobin. With maturation haemoglobin increases and the number ribosome numbers fall and the cytoplasm changes from blue to pink-red. Cytoplasm of the basophilic normoblasts is blue, adjacent erythrocytes pink-red and that of a polychromatophilic normoblast is a combination of blue and pink-red.
In keeping with nuclear maturation in the erythroid cells the nucleus of the polychromatic normoblasts is smaller and has a chromatin that shows a greater degree of clumping than that of basophilic normoblast.
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