A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants.
Typically a leaf is a thin, flattened organ borne above ground and specialized for photosynthesis, but many types of leaves are adapted in ways almost unrecognisable in those terms: some are not flat (for example many succulent leaves and conifers), some are not above ground (such as bulb scales), and some are without major photosynthetic function (consider for example cataphylls, spines, and cotyledons).
Conversely, many structures of non-vascular plants, or even of some lichens, which are not plants at all (in the sense of being members of the kingdom Plantae), do look and function much like leaves. Furthermore, several structures found in vascular plants look like leaves but are not actually leaves; they differ from leaves in their structures and origins. Examples include phyllodes, cladodes, and phylloclades.
Read more about Leaf: General Nature of Leaves, Large-scale Features (leaf Morphology), Seasonal Leaf Loss, Morphology, Adaptations, Interactions With Other Organisms, Bibliography, See Also
Other articles related to "leaf":
... Wilbur Monroe Leaf (aka Munro Leaf) (December 4, 1905 – December 21, 1976), was an American author of children's literature who wrote and illustrated nearly 40 books during his 40-year career ...
... They live in leaf pockets of a host plant species, Hirtella physophora, which is also native to the Amazon ... These leaf pockets are areas inside of the plant between the leaves and the stem ... inhabit a tree, with about 1200 individual workers per tree and 40 workers per leaf ...
... gardaa is placed into a cornleaf, and after that a wet cloth is placed over corn leaf and then put the corn leaf in fire until it gets baked and then by twisting the leaf the material is ...
... dark tan, brown, or black, is darker than the leaf ... of previous leaves show on the back of each leaf ... They then die after blooming, as all leaf and root resources are put into the stalk, flowers, and seeds ...
... Another example is when frost forms on a leaf ... When the leaf becomes cold enough, water vapor in the air surrounding the leaf loses enough thermal energy to change into a solid ... When the leaf is introduced, the supercooled water vapor immediately begins to condensate, but by this point is already past the freezing point ...
Famous quotes containing the word leaf:
“The type of fig leaf which each culture employs to cover its social taboos offers a twofold description of its morality. It reveals that certain unacknowledged behavior exists and it suggests the form that such behavior takes.”
—Freda Adler (b. 1934)
“I leaf through books, I do not study them. What I retain of them is something I no longer recognize as anyone else’s.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“Black creeps from root to root,
each leaf
cuts another leaf on the grass,
shadow seeks shadow,
then both leaf
and leaf-shadow are lost.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)