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Cross section of succulent, leaved perennial herb
A cross section of Phemeranthus teretifolius, a succulent, leaved perennial herb. In addition to the single, large central bundle, a 3-D ring of smaller vascular bundles is visible at the junction of outer photosynthetic tissues and inner water storage tissues.
Some plants such as succulents have managed to grow very plump leaves. For this to happen, according to a new National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported study by researchers at Brown University, plants had to have evolved a 3-D arrangement of their leaf veins. This is how they could maintain adequately efficient hydraulics for photosynthesis.
To learn more about this research, see the Brown news release How some leaves got fat: Its the veins. [Research supported by NSF grant DEB 10-26611, awarded to Erika Edwards for the study of the evolution of succulence, water relation, and photosynthetic pathway in the plant clade Portulacineae.] (Date of Image: January 2011)
Credit: Matthew Ogburn, Yale University
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