Leaf

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

Famous quotes containing the word leaf:

    Southern trees bear a strange fruit
    Blood on the leaf and blood at the root
    Black bodies swingin’ in the southern breeze
    Strange fruit hangin’ in the poplar trees.
    Billie Holiday [Eleanor Fagan] (1915–1959)

    So near to paradise all pairing ends:
    Here loveless birds now flock as winter friends,
    Content with bud-inspecting. They presume
    To say which buds are leaf and which are bloom.
    Robert Frost (1874–1963)

    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)