Shadow leaf
A shadow leaf is a foliage leaf of a plant that is adapted to an environment with little light. In deciduous trees, shade leaves are particularly found in the inner part of the crown or on the side facing away from the sun, while the leaves in the outer part of the crown and on the sunny side develop into sun leaves .
Shadow leaves have a flatter palisade parenchyma than sun leaves and are usually thinner. Their chloroplasts , however, have significantly more thylakoids and more chlorophylls with the same leaf area , which enables an effective yield of the low light irradiation. This means that shadow leaves are darker green than sun leaves. In addition, the ratio of chlorophyll a to chlorophyll b is reduced, this is seen as an adjustment to the high proportion of infrared radiation in the shade. Through these modifications, shadow leaves achieve their maximum photosynthesis output even in weak light .
- Copper beech
Shadow leaves (end of May)
Sun leaves (end of May)
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Peter Sitte, Hubert Ziegler, Friedrich Ehrendorfer, Andreas Bresinsky: Strasburger, textbook of botany. Gustav Fischer, Stuttgart, Jena, New York 1991, ISBN 3-437-20447-5 , pp. 283-284 and p. 407.
