Page 10 - Lesson Notes-Morphologyof flowering plant

Types of Leaves
Leaves can be of following types
i. Simple Leaves
A leaf having a single or undivided lamina is called simple leaf. The lamina of a
simple leaf may be incised but the incisions do not touch the midrib.
The lamina can have various types of incisions which may reach upto half (fid), more
than half (partite) or near the base or midrib (sect).

Compound Leaves
A leaf is called compound when the incision of the leaf blade goes down to the
midrib (rachis) or to the petiole so that the leaf is broken up into a number of
segments called leaflets.
A bud is present in the axil of petiole in both simple and compound leaves but not in
the axil of leaflets of the compound leaf.
A compound leaf can be of following two types
(a) Pinnately Compound Leaves In these leaves, the incision of lamina is directed
towards the midrib, which is known as rachis. Leaflets are arranged on both side on
the rachis, e.g., Neem, rose, etc.