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Leaf Structure and Function Worksheet
Leaves are the main organs of food production and photosynthesis in green plants. Many plants
leaves have evolved over time to be very well adapted to their environment and growing
conditions. Below you will find several different plant types and leaves observe the pictures and
answer the questions for each plant type.
Label the leaf cross section: Use pg. 681 for help.
Use the following terms:
Upper epidermis,
mesophyll, air space
palisade mesophyll,
spongy mesophyll,
cuticle, stomata,
guard cell, lower epidermis,
ELODEA: In the picture label the chloroplast.
Elodea is an aquatic plants often called a waterweeds. The
American water weed lives entirely underwater with the
exception of small white flowers which bloom at the surface
and are attached to the plant by delicate stalks.
1. Thinking about where elodea lives why are the cuticle, guard
cells, and stomata absent in the leaf?
CORN: In the picture below label the upper epidermis,
stomata, guard cell, lower epidermis, xylem, and
phloem.
2. On which layer of epidermis are guard cells found?
Why?
WATER LILY: In the picture below label the upper epidermis, palisade mesophyll, spongy
mesophyll, cuticle, stomata, guard cell, lower epidermis, air space
3. What differences do you notice between
the xylem and the phloem?
4. Why are the air spaces in the spongy
tissue 2 to 4 times larger than those in all the
other leaves?
Xylem
Phloem
5. The guard cells and stomata are found in the upper epidermis of the water lily. Why are the
stomata found here?
YUCCA (desert plant): Arrows indicate depressions in the upper surface of this leaf. The
leaves are long and very thick, and the depressions run as channels along the surface. Between
the channels are masses of fibers; typically, an epidermis lacks stomata anywhere that there
are fibers immediately below it, and that is true here. All stomata are located in those channels.
Thick Cuticle
Fibers
6. Why do the guard cells and the stomata appear
to be so small?
7. Why are air spaces almost entirely absent?
8. How does the thickness of the cuticle have to do with the environment in which the plant
lives?