The invention relates to novel and improved photostable 
rhodamine dyes of the general structural formulae I or II and their uses as fluorescent markers, e.g. for immunostainings and spectroscopic and microscopic applications, in particular in conventional and 
stimulated emission depletion (STED) 
microscopy and 
fluorescence correlation 
spectroscopy. The partially deuterated analogues are useful as molecular 
mass distribution tags in 
mass spectroscopic applications, wherein R1=an unsubstituted or substituted 
alkyl group, including a cycloalkyl group, or heterocycloalkyl group; R2=H, an unsubstituted or substituted 
alkyl group, including a cycloalkyl group, or heterocycloalkyl group, or an unsubstituted or substituted 
aryl group or heteroaryl group, or any combination of such groups; X=CH2, C═O, C═NORa, C═NNRaNRb, CH(ORa), O, S, SO, SO2, or any other derivatives of these groups, with Ra and Rb independently being H or an organic residue, in particular an unsubstituted or substituted (cyclo)
alkyl group or heterocycloalkyl group, an unsubstituted or substituted 
aryl group or heteroaryl group; Z=a negatively charged group with 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 charges per anion.