Hi guys, my name is Barbara Kapsenberg and I am a friend of Susan Libonati (your teacher).

Leaf structures can be a confusing subject. So I have decided to make, with help of Susan, this little learning session to help you. In this training session, I rely on the fact that you attended Susan's lecture and lab. Please, I can't emphasize enough, seeing and practicing the leaf structures on real leaves is the only way to pass the quizzes and be successful in this course.

 

- Basics about leaf structures.

If you watched my intro you hopefully got the message: studying leaf structures is an important element in identifying plants. Of course every book will use its own way to describe leaf structures and nobody uses exactly the same terms.

If you get serious about identifying native plants and use the fabulous Jepson Manual,
I recommend you to buy: "Plant Identification Terminology, an Illustrated Glossary" by James G. Harris and Melinda Woolf Harris, (Spring Lake Publishing)
ISBN: 0-9640221-6-8.

But to keep things simple, in this course, you only have to learn five different groups of leaf structures to describe the differences in leaves.
It is important to learn these groups of leaf structures well and know their differences. You wouldn't believe how often students mix them up.

 

- 5 different groups of leaf structures.