Try to decide if leaves are a useful feature for classifying plants. In the picture below there are drawings of the leaves from a bottlebrush and a tradescantia plant.
Two plants to compare
Compare them. What are their similarities? What have they got in common?
Describe the two leaves.
· bottlebrush leaf
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· tradescantia leaf
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Both leaves have an entire edge and have prominent veins.
But from the drawing 'Two plants to compare', you can see that each plant is quite different from the other! Tradescantia is a soft-stemmed climbing plant whereas bottlebrushes are small woody trees.
And have you ever noticed that some gum trees have different shaped leaves on the same plant! Some plants don't even have leaves. This all adds to the trouble with using leaves in classification. |
