Perspective: evolution of the leaf

All vascular plants except their most primitive ancestors are characterized by leaves (see Chapter 1). As the primary photosynthetic organs, leaves are of great significance not only to the plant but also to many other organisms, including humans, that rely on plants as a source of food. Botanists interested in the evolution of plant structures believe that leaves evolved in at least two ways, and in possibly five independent lines in vascular plants (see Niklas, 1997). The leaves of lycophytes are considered enations because they are thought to have evolved as simple outgrowths from stems. These leaves, often referred to as microphylls, are commonly small although those of some extinct taxa attained great lengths (up to 1 meter in some lepidodendrids). Like all microphylls, however, they were vascularized by only a single midvein. In seed plants and ferns (possibly also in sphenophytes) leaves are thought to represent evolutionarily modified lateral branch systems. This hypothesis (the telome hypothesis) is based on the fact that the earliest seed plant ancestors were leafless, but bore small lateral branch systems. The fossil evidence indicates that over time, three-dimensional branch systems became flattened and subsequently laminate. Seed plant leaves which, on average, are much larger, and much more complex than those of lycophytes in both gross morphology and internal structure, are often referred to as megaphylls. For more detailed discussions of the evolution of leaves see Steward and Rothwell (1993) and Taylor and Taylor (1993).