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Leaf shape  [ Botany ]

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

Synonyms: Leaf form, Leaf type
     
  Any of the various shape that leaves of plants can assume.  
     
In botany there are many terms, usually derived from Latin, used to describe the shape of a plant leaf.
The following are some of the basic ones dealing with leaf blade shapes - General overwiew:

Acicular: Having the shape of a needle
Cuneate: Broad and truncate at the summit, narrowly triangular, and tapering toward the base;
Deltoid: Triangular in outline, suggesting a capital delta.
Lanceolate:
Lance-shaped, tapering from a broad base to an apex; much longer than wide
Ovate: Egg-shaped with the broadest part toward the base (note that obovate is the reverse relative)
Obovate: Stem attaches to tapering point petiole attachment to the blade)
Cordate: Heart shaped with a basal sinus.
Peltate: Shield shaped with the petiole not attached at the blade margin (peltata): Rounded, stem underneath
Scale leaf: Small sharp-pointed leaf with a broad base. They usually overlap on the stem.


Peltate


Ovate


Obovate


Cordate


Lanceolate


Cuneate


Deltoid


Scale leaf


Acicular:

 

     
 
     

 


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Holdfast roots  [ Botany  ]

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

 
     
  Some species of climbing plants develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place.  
     
Climbing plants, like the poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata), and trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans),  develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place. Usually the Holdfast roots die at the end of the first season, but in some species they are perennial. In the tropics some of the large climbing plants have hold-fast roots by which they attach themselves, and long, cord-like roots that extend downward through the air and may lengthen and branch for several years until they strike the soil and become absorbent roots.

Major references and further lectures:
1) E. N. Transeau “General Botany” Discovery Publishing House, 1994
     

 

 

 

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