Monday, July 28, 2014

Botany picture #166: tiny Western Australian sundew


Today (or to-die, as the Australians pronounce it) I lectured about leaves and indumentum, that is the hairs, scales or glands that can be found on plant leaves and stems. One of the pictures I showed in the presentation was the above, a really really tiny Drosera or sundew from Western Australia.

It nicely demonstrates not only two of the very many functions that leaves have evolved to fulfil - in this case, photosynthesis and capturing and digesting insects to improve nutrition - but also, obviously, glandular hairs.

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