CLASSIFICATION OF PLANTS 

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PLANT LEAVES

  • Leaves are the green parts of a plant with stomata for gaseous exchange.
  • Leaves have chlorophyll to trap sunlight energy and manufacture its starch.
  • Leaves also form the shoot system of a plant.
  • A leaf is fixed between two internodes on a plant stem or branch.

Parts of leaf

PLANT LEAVE

Functions of each part of a leaf.

  • It has a surface area for easy trapping of sunlight energy by the help of chlorophyll
  • It’s where the stomata are found.
  • It helps in the manufacturing of starch

Stomata

  • It’s called stoma for singular and stomata for plural.
  • They are small holes on the leaf where gaseous exchange takes place.
  • They also open to allow water escape during the process of transpiration.
  • The stomata also let in carbondioxide by diffusion during day time and oxygen during night time.

Leaf venation

  • Is the arrangement of veins in a leaf.

Midrib

  • Transport water and nutrients from the leaf stalk to other parts of the leaf.

Leaf veins.

  • They are hollow to allow distribution of water and nutrients within the leaf
  • collects manufactured food from all parts of a leaf to the midrib

Leaf apex.

  • It’s the sharp tip part of a leaf to provide protection to the leaf

Leaf stalk / petiole

  • This provides attachment of the leaf to stem or a branch.
  • Supplies water to the leaf from the branch or stem.

Leaf base

  • Attaches the leaf to the stem or branch.

Note: there are mainly two processes that take place in plant leaves namely;

  • Photosynthesis and
  • Breathing

Activity

  1. Identify two important processes that take place in plant leaves.
  2. Draw and name parts of a leaf
  3. State the functions of the following parts of a leaf; a) Veins, b) Chlorophyll, c)Petiole.
  4. How can plant leaves be useful to people?