One of my favorite topics back when I taught Botany 101 was plant oddities. A recent question on our Garden Professors’ discussion group on Facebook reminded me about cladophylls, like the one pictured below.
Cladophyll literally means “branch leaf.” Anatomically it’s a branch (it has nodes from which new stems, leaves, flowers, and even roots can arise), but it functions as a leaf. It’s the main site of photosynthesis in plants such as holiday cacti (Schlumbergera species). Like other cacti, they have reduced leaves and if you look closely at the photo, you can see the leaves as tiny hairs arising from the nodes at the end of the stem and along the sides.
But unlike cacti, these plants aren’t found in deserts, and their leaves are soft threads rather than the vicious sharp spines you’ll find in typical cacti. Instead, these are generally epiphytes in coastal mountains where humidity is relatively high. But root water is limited for epiphytes and these waxy cladophylls probably are adaptations against water loss. Their reduced leaves are immune to drought stress, unlike those of other succulents which appear only when water is plentiful.
As you might expect from their red, tubular flowers, holiday cacti are pollinated by hummingbirds in their native environment. Gardeners who have a sufficiently mild climate to grow these outdoors might be lucky enough to see them visited.
Fascinating. New term for me.
I noticed at the Facebook group, the thought for the blog post was prompted by someone asking about the potential for green stems to photosynthesize … and when I shared this post to the GP FB Page, asparagus was mentioned as falling into the cladophyll category.
And, I did some googling, and came to the conclusion that any plant tissue (leaf, stem, even fruit) that has chloroplasts has the potential to photosynthesize, although how much it adds to the plant’s overall food-making seems to depend completely on which plant.
Please clarify, or add anything to help me (and hopefully others) to better understand.
You’re right, Ray. Anything that’s green (other than potatoes) contains chloroplasts and is photosynthetic. How much any particular tissue contributes to overall sugar production depends on how much those tissues dominate the overall plant.
Cladophylls, as I should have mentioned, are photosynthetic stems that are flattened – thus, they not only function as leaves but kind of look leaflike. So asparagus and cacti (the regular type) have dominant, photosynthetic stems and reduced leaves, but their stems are not cladophylls.
Hope that helps!