Glossary of leaf morphology

The following terms are used to describe leafmorphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (that is, the leaf blade or 'lamina' is undivided) or compound (that is, the leaf blade is divided into two or more leaflets).^[1] The edge of the leaf may be regular or irregular, and may be smooth or have hair, bristles, or spines. For more terms describing other aspects of leaves besides their overall morphology, see the leaf article.

The terms listed here all are supported by technical and professional usage, but they cannot be represented as mandatory or undebatable; readers must use their judgement. Authors often use terms arbitrarily, or coin them to taste, possibly in ignorance of established terms, and it is not always clear whether because of ignorance, or personal preference, or because usages change with time or context, or because of variation between specimens, even specimens from the same plant. For example, whether to call leaves on the same tree "acuminate", "lanceolate", or "linear" could depend on individual judgement, or which part of the tree one collected them from. The same cautions might apply to "caudate", "cuspidate", and "mucronate", or to "crenate", "dentate", and "serrate".

Another problem is to establish definitions that meet all cases or satisfy all authorities and readers. For example, it seems altogether reasonable to define a mucro as "a small sharp point as a continuation of the midrib", but it may not be clear how small is small enough, how sharp is sharp enough, how hard the point must be, and what to call the point when one cannot tell whether the leaf has a midrib at all. Various authors or field workers might come to incompatible conclusions, or might try to compromise by qualifying terms so vaguely that a description of a particular plant practically loses its value.

Use of these terms is not restricted to leaves, but may be applied to morphology of other parts of plants, e.g. bracts, bracteoles, stipules, sepals, petals, carpels or scales. Some of these terms are also used for similar-looking anatomical features on animals.

Leaves of most plants include a flat structure called the blade or lamina supported by a network of veins, a petiole and a leaf base;^[1] but not all leaves are flat, some are cylindrical. Leaves may be simple, with a single leaf blade, or compound, with several leaflets. Compound leaves may be pinnate with pinnae (leaflets) on both sides of a rachis (axis), or may be palmate with multiple leaflets arising from a single point.^[1] Leaf structure is described by several terms that include:

Being one of the more visible features, leaf shape is commonly used for plant identification. Similar terms are used for other plant parts, such as petals, tepals, and bracts.

Los márgenes de las hojas se utilizan con frecuencia en la identificación visual de plantas porque suelen ser consistentes dentro de una especie o grupo de especies, y son una característica fácil de observar. Los términos margen y borde son intercambiables, ya que ambos se refieren al perímetro exterior de una hoja.

Las hojas también pueden doblarse, esculpirse o enrollarse de diversas maneras. Si las hojas se pliegan inicialmente en el brote, pero luego se desenrollan, se denomina vernación ; la ptixis es el plegamiento de una hoja individual en un brote.

La palabra latina para «hoja», folium , es neutra. En las descripciones de una sola hoja, se utiliza la terminación neutra singular del adjetivo, por ejemplo, folium lanceolatum «hoja lanceolada», folium lineare «hoja lineal». En las descripciones de varias hojas, se utiliza el plural neutro, por ejemplo, folia linearia «hojas lineales». Las descripciones suelen referirse a la planta utilizando el ablativo singular o plural, por ejemplo, foliis ovatis «con hojas ovaladas». ^{[ 8 ]}

• Glosario de términos botánicos
• Glosario de morfología vegetal
• Los cladofilos son pecíolos con forma de hoja.
• Tamaño de la hoja
• Seno
• Foliolo (botánica) y raquis
• Pecíolo (botánica) y tallo de la planta
• Los filocladios son tallos aplanados que se asemejan a hojas.
• Pinnación
• Morfología vegetal
• Taxonomía (biología)

• Descripción de las hojas, Universidad de Rochester
• Jardín Botánico Tropical Fairchild
• Vplantas
• Botánica 115 Archivado el 28/12/2015 en Wayback Machine
• El sitio de semillas