The spiky, iconic Canadian maple leaf. A large, lush Florida palm leaf. Thin aspen leaves rustling in the crisp Colorado air. You can probably recall many different leaf shapes from many different ...

All leaves develop from tiny buds, which consist of only a few cells. The buds always look the same, no matter what kind of leaf they eventually form. Not only that, but very similar leaf shapes can ...

Francesco Vuolo and colleagues from the laboratory of Max Planck Director Miltos Tsiantis are investigating the mechanisms underlying the dazzling variation in leaf shapes one can see in nature.

There’s one thing about leaves that science has long agreed upon: They only grow so big as available water allows — but not so big that the whole plant overheats. The water part makes sense. We all ...

Subtle changes in genetics can have major effects on how leaves grow into a wide variety of shapes. John Innes Centre Around the globe, plants have evolved to use their leaves for many purposes: broad ...