Monday, March 16, 2009

Tuesday Terminology:Simple vs. Compound Leaf

Here is set of essential vocab words to know for identifying plants. It is important to be able to look at a plant and determine what a single leaf consists of. Believe it or not, this can be trickier than it sounds. Here are the 2 most basic types:

Simple leaf: an undivided leaf; one piece beginning from a single bud.
(latin)simplicifolius - with simple leaves
Compound leaf: A single leaf divided into multiple leaflets, beginning from a single bud.
(latin) compositus - put together, made up, united, compound
*Practice note: To determine if you are looking at a simple or compound leaf, look for the originating bud at the base of the petiole (stem). A leaf always begins at the bud, but a leaflet will not be directly attached at the bud. There are many forms of compound leaves, so always be sure to look for the bud of origin. As the season goes on there will be more examples of simple and compound leaves, and they will be pointed out in future posts.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

What is the plant 3rd down i think this is on my garden?!