Manual of Leaf Architecture [Paperback]

Beth Ellis (Author), Douglas C. Daly (Author), Leo J. Hickey (Author), John D. Mitchell (Author), Kirk R. Johnson (Author), Peter Wilf (Author), Scott L. Wing (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2009

This is an essential reference for describing, measuring and classifying the foliage of flowering plants. The presented system provides long-needed guidelines for characterizing the organization, shape, venation, and surface features of angiosperm leaves. In contrast to systems focusing on reproductive characters for identification, the emphasis is on macroscopic features of the leaf blade including leaf characters, venation, and tooth characters. The advantage of this system is that it allows for the classification of plants independently of their flowers, which is especially useful for fossil leaves (usually found in isolation) and tropical plants (whose flowering cycles are brief and irregular, and whose fruits and flowers may be difficult to access). An illustrated terminology including detailed definitions and annotated illustrations is the focus of the classification system, the aim of which is to provide a framework with comparative examples to allow both modern and fossil leaves to be described and classified consistently.Published in association with the New York Botanical Garden.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"This guide is a major contribution, and it will revolutionize the study of leaves in many (increasingly interrelated) fields of biology. Because it truly encompasses the diversity of dicot leaves, this guide will be of use to paleobiologists, systematists, anatomists, functional ecologists, ecophysiologists, and researchers of biological networks generally. No previous work to my knowledge provides this level of diagnostic characterization of leaf morphological features. The concepts laid out for the description of the leaf venation is also a major advance. I am not exaggerating when I say that for those of us who study leaves, this guide is analogous to the first manual on human anatomy, and this guide means to us what that manual must have meant for medical researchers! With this guide, researchers can begin new careers determining the evolution, functional significance, and ecological correlation of the diversity of leaf architectures, as here are set out a large number of leaf traits in one place, clearly and accessibly, and the descriptions are consistent, easily applied, and rigorous."--Lawren Sack, University of California, Los Angeles

"Since the earliest days of scientific botany, subtle variation in leaf form has been both informative and confusing for specialists and nonspecialists alike. The Manual of Leaf Architecture places comparative studies of living and fossil leaves on a new and more secure footing. It will be indispensable for anyone using the leaves of living or fossil plants in their morpho-developmental, systematic, or ecological research."--Professor Sir Peter Crane FRS, John and Marion Sullivan University Professor, University of Chicago

This book is a clear, well illustrated, logically rigorous, and eminently practical distillation of the authors' vast collective experience in devising more powerful and objective methods for the identification of fossil angiosperm leaves. Not only will it be a boon for paleobotanists working on fossil leaves, but it should also stimulate greater appreciation of the utility of leaf characters in reconstruction of the phylogeny and evolution of living angiosperms and field identification of plants in both temperate and tropical regions."--James A. Doyle, University of California, Davis

About the Author

Beth Ellis is a research scientist at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

Douglas C. Daly is Director of the Institute of Systematic Botany at the New York Botanical Garden.

Leo J. Hickey is a Professor and Curator in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at Yale University.

Kirk R. Johnson is Vice President of Research and Collections and Chief Curator at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

John D. Mitchell is a Research Fellow at the New York Botanical Garden.

Peter Wilf is Associate Professor of Geosciences at Pennsylvania State University.

Scott L. Wing is Research Scientist and Curator in the Department of Paleobiology at the Smithsonian Institution.

Product Details

• Paperback: 190 pages
• Publisher: Cornell University Press (April 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080147518X
• ISBN-13: 978-0801475184
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,044,465 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kirk R. Johnson is vice president and chief curator at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. He received his PhD in geology and paleobotany from Yale University in 1989, and did postdoctoral research in the rainforests of northern Australia before coming to Denver in 1991, where he directed the installation of the museum's Prehistoric Journey exhibit. His research focuses on fossil plants, the environmental effects of the dinosaursmiting asteroid, and the birth and death of biomes. Johnson also works with artists to create accurate and plausible paintings, murals, and dioramas of prehistoric landscapes, several of which are on display in the Colorado Convention Center. Johnson is the author of Prehistoric Journey: A History of Life on Earth and Ancient Denvers: Scenes from the Past 300 Million Years of the Colorado Front Range . Johnson lives in Denver, Colorado.