The cost of leafing

Abstract

Understanding the trade-offs involved for plants making leaves promises fresh insights on every scale from the plant to the planet, finds John Whitfield There are about 250,000 different types of plant — and almost as many types of leaf, from blades of grass through downy beech leaves to the needles of cedars or the fronds of palms. But the differences hide a basic similarity, says ecologist Ian Wright of Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.