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Plant structures, including, roots, buds, and shoots, that develop in unusual locations are called adventitious. Such structures are common in vascular plants. [citation needed] Adventitious roots and buds usually develop near the existing vascular tissues so that they can connect to the xylem and phloem. However, the exact location varies greatly.
Pteridophytes (ferns and lycophytes) are free-sporing vascular plants that have a life cycle with alternating, free-living gametophyte and sporophyte phases that are independent at maturity. The body of the sporophyte is well differentiated into roots, stem and leaves. The root system is always adventitious. The stem is either underground or ...
External leaf characteristics, such as shape, margin, hairs, the petiole, and the presence of stipules and glands, are frequently important for identifying plants to family, genus or species levels, and botanists have developed a rich terminology for describing leaf characteristics. Leaves almost always have determinate growth.
The epidermis is the outermost cell layer of the primary plant body. In some older works the cells of the leaf epidermis have been regarded as specialized parenchyma cells, [1] but the established modern preference has long been to classify the epidermis as dermal tissue, [2] whereas parenchyma is classified as ground tissue. [3]
Today's megaphyll leaves probably became commonplace some 360 mya, about 40 my after the simple leafless plants had colonized the land in the early Devonian period. This spread has been linked to the fall in the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations in the late Paleozoic era associated with a rise in density of stomata on leaf surface.
The xylem is oriented toward the adaxial surface of the leaf (usually the upper side), and phloem is oriented toward the abaxial surface of the leaf. This is why aphids are typically found on the undersides of the leaves rather than on the top, since the phloem transports sugars manufactured by the plant and they are closer to the lower surface.
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Pebble-plants or living stones (e.g. Lithops, Conophytum) have reduced their leaves to just two, forming a fleshy body, only the top of which may be visible above ground. Ferocactus pilosus (Mexican lime cactus), a stem succulent. Stem succulents are generally either leafless or have leaves which can be quickly shed in the event of drought ...