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Stoma in a tomato leaf shown via colorized scanning electron microscope image A stoma in horizontal cross section The underside of a leaf. In this species (Tradescantia zebrina) the guard cells of the stomata are green because they contain chlorophyll while the epidermal cells are chlorophyll-free and contain red pigments.
A leaf (pl.: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, [1] usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis.Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", [2] [3] while the leaves, stem, flower, and fruit collectively form the shoot system. [4]
The stomata complex regulates the exchange of gases and water vapor between the outside air and the interior of the leaf. Typically, the stomata are more numerous over the abaxial (lower) epidermis of the leaf than the (adaxial) upper epidermis. An exception is floating leaves where most or all stomata are on the upper surface.
Chart illustrating leaf morphology terms. The following terms are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (that is, the leaf blade or 'lamina' is undivided) or compound (that is, the leaf blade is divided into two or more leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular or irregular, and ...
Photosynthesis depends on the diffusion of carbon dioxide (CO 2) from the air through the stomata into the mesophyll tissues. Oxygen (O 2), produced as a byproduct of photosynthesis, exits the plant via the stomata. When the stomata are open, water is lost by evaporation and must be replaced via the transpiration stream, with water taken up by ...
Vascular plants have true roots, leaves, and stems, even if some groups have secondarily lost one or more of these traits. Cavalier-Smith (1998) treated the Tracheophyta as a phylum or botanical division encompassing two of these characteristics defined by the Latin phrase "facies diploida xylem et phloem instructa" (diploid phase with xylem ...
The leaves are needle-like, 5–23 mm (3 ⁄ 16 – 29 ⁄ 32 in) long and 1.5–2 mm (1 ⁄ 16 – 3 ⁄ 32 in) broad, strongly flattened in cross-section, with a finely serrated margin and a bluntly acute apex. They are mid to dark green above; the underside has two distinctive white bands of stomata with only a narrow green midrib between ...
At the tip of the leaf sits a terminal leaflet which can vary in shape from the rest. Like other bennettitaleans, the leaf's cuticle was syndetocheilic (with guard and subsidiary cells of the stomata having the same mother cells) and hypostomatic (with stomata located entirely underneath the leaf).