The spiral pattern of an Aloe polyphylla plant at the University of California Botanical Garden. Stan Shebs via Wikicommons under CC BY-SA 3.0 To the untrained eye, plants may appear to grow rather ...

Spring arrives with a burst of life, but it also comes with a puzzle: those curling leaves on plants that make them look like they’re auditioning for a sculpture contest. While the shapes can seem ...

Leaves can be enjoyed for their shade, autumn colors, or taste, and the arrangement of leaves on a plant is a practical way to identify a species. However, the details of how plants control their leaf ...

Steve Nix is a member of the Society of American Foresters and a former forest resources analyst for the state of Alabama. Leaf shapes play an important role in tree identification, providing key ...

A Japanese plant species with a peculiar leaf pattern recently revealed unexpected insight into how almost all plants control their leaf arrangement. Leaves can be enjoyed for their shade, autumn ...