Plants with flowers may also be in the veins of the leaves

2009/12/10 Lakar Iraizoz, Oihane - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Biokimika
• Botanika
• Eboluzioa

As evolution progresses, the plants with flowers have been developing more and more veins in their leaves. In this regard, they realized that two plant biologists from the University of Tasmania and the University of Tennessee were studying the transport of water in the leaves, and proposed that to it could be linked the success of these plants in the plant kingdom. In fact, 96% of the known plants are plants with flowers and hundreds of thousands of species.

Both researchers have explained that plants with many veins have greater capacity to perform photosynthesis. The more photosynthesis they make, the more carbon dioxide they convert sugar and, therefore, the more they grow. This greater growth capacity allowed flower plants, that is, angiosperms, to compete with the rest of plants like conifers.

The carbon dioxide necessary to perform photosynthesis penetrates the plants through the stomata of the leaves. When the stomata open to introduce carbon dioxide, the plants lose water. And that's where the function of veins comes in: if there are many veins, water is transported more easily into the leaves, making it easier to replace the lost water. Thus, plants can have more stomata open, allowing them to increase the level of photosynthesis.

Images: Images: Big, Umberto Salvagnin, small in Vimal Raveendran.