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The plant cuticle is one of a series of innovations, together with stomata, xylem and phloem and intercellular spaces in stem and later leaf mesophyll tissue, that plants evolved more than 450 million years ago during the transition between life in water and life on land. [11]
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 cuticle reduces water loss to the atmosphere, it is sometimes covered with wax in smooth sheets, granules, plates, tubes, or filaments. The wax layers give some plants a whitish or bluish surface color. Surface wax acts as a moisture barrier and protects the plant from intense sunlight and wind. [5] Diagram of fine scale leaf internal anatomy
Palisade cells contain a high concentration of chloroplasts, particularly in the upper portion of the cell, making them the primary site of photosynthesis in the leaves of plants that contain them. Their vacuole also aids in this function: it is large and central, pushing the chloroplasts to the edge of the cell, maximising the absorption of ...
Parenchyma cells have a variety of functions: In leaves, they form two layers of mesophyll cells immediately beneath the epidermis of the leaf, that are responsible for photosynthesis and the exchange of gases. [2] These layers are called the palisade parenchyma and spongy mesophyll. Palisade parenchyma cells can be either cuboidal or elongated.
The surface of the leaf is coated with a water-resistant waxy cuticle that protects the leaf from excessive evaporation of water and decreases the absorption of ultraviolet or blue light to minimize heating. The transparent epidermis layer allows light to pass through to the palisade mesophyll cells where most of the photosynthesis takes place.
SV channels have been shown to function as cation channels that are permeable to Ca 2+ ions, [35] but their exact functions are not yet known in plants. [39] Guard cells control gas exchange and ion exchange through opening and closing. K+ is one ion that flows both into and out of the cell, causing a positive charge to develop.
Dicotyledon plantlet Young castor oil plant showing its prominent two embryonic leaves (), which differ from the adult leaves. The dicotyledons, also known as dicots (or, more rarely, dicotyls), [2] are one of the two groups into which all the flowering plants (angiosperms) were formerly divided.