Not every species produces leaves with all of these structural parts.
Two basic forms of leaves can be described considering the way the blade is divided.
Leaves exhibit a great deal of diversity in terms of shape, arrangement on the stem, vein arrangement, thickness, and so forth.
Leaves in temperate, boreal, and seasonally dry zones may be seasonally deciduous (falling off or dying for the inclement season).
The denominator gives the number of leaves in the arrangement.
Leaves are normally green in color, which comes from chlorophyll found in plastids in the chlorenchyma cells.
Leaves may be classified in many different ways, and the type is usually characteristic of a species, although some species produce more than one type of leaf.
Leaves can store food and water, and are modified in some plants for other purposes.
Compound leaves are a characteristic of some families of higher plants, such as the Fabaceae.
Most leaves show dorsoventral anatomy: the upper (adaxial) and lower (abaxial) surfaces have somewhat different construction and may serve different functions.
The cuticle may be thinner on the lower epidermis than on the upper epidermis; and is thicker on leaves from dry climates as compared with those from wet climates.