Photosynthesis??

Question

Please can you help me get 5 structural adaptation of a leaf to photosynthesis?

Answer 1

Structural Adaptations of a green leaf for photosynthesis -

1 ) Flat and surface - Like a Solar Panel  a leaf surface is flat to capture maximum sunshine .

2 ) Thin surface - It is good for aeration

3) Palisade tissue - It is the most vital for most of the leaves .

it is always located near the upper surface so that the chloroplasts with in can receive maximum sun light .

4 ) Leaf surface is covered with transparent cuticle - the cuticle protects against excessive transpiration at the same time being transparent does not block the incident light .

5 ) Lower surface has spongy parenchyma layer - This portion of the leaf has loosely arranged cells with a lot of air spaces . This good for aeration or gaseous exchange .

6 ) More stomata on the lower surface - Normally the upper surface has less stomata to reduce the rate of transpiration .

This deficiency is overcome by increasing the stomatal number on the lower epidermis .

This way the transpiration is under control but at the same time gaseous exchange does not suffer .



7 ) In some plants the green color or chloroplasts are protected from bleaching action of strong light by developing other color ( This is especially true for very young leaves that have copper red color that masks the young chloroplasts .)

8 ) The entire leaf is,internally, covered with a fine network of conducting elements ( Vascular bundles of Xylem and Phloem ) for rapid transportation of water and food .

It is very similar to the network of blood capillaries in human organs like lungs .

see photo .click on the links-

http://www.life.uiuc.edu/plantbio/102/le...

http://www.iusd.k12.ca.us/uhs/cs2/images...