Superhydrophobicity!
…what? Another wacko term in Bill’s photo caption! Have you ever noticed how water beads up on some leaves but not on others? Good examples of the former include lupines, cottonwood, and aspen leaves. The scientific term for this, hydrophobicity, literally means fear of water.
Hydrophobicity on the surface of the leaf shows off beautifully when the aspen are in full color and have dropped off their parent plant, such as in this photo. The water beads on aspen are particularly robust, earning the “super” in the title. The water repellency is associated with tiny hairs and wax plates on the surface of the leaf, which help to repel water, resulting in the formation of multiple little spheres rather than spreading across the leaf surface.
Why would a plant want to repel a key resource like water? The current hypothesis is that superhydrophobicity keeps the surface of the leaf dry and clean, helping to promote photosynthesis through greater light absorption.
These leaves were on the Beckwith Pass trail in the West Elk Mountains, Colorado.
Superhydrophobicity!
…what? Another wacko term in Bill’s photo caption! Have you ever noticed how water beads up on some leaves but not on others? Good examples of the former include lupines, cottonwood, and aspen leaves. The scientific term for this, hydrophobicity, literally means fear of water.
Hydrophobicity on the surface of the leaf shows off beautifully when the aspen are in full color and have dropped off their parent plant, such as in this photo. The water beads on aspen are particularly robust, earning the “super” in the title. The water repellency is associated with tiny hairs and wax plates on the surface of the leaf, which help to repel water, resulting in the formation of multiple little spheres rather than spreading across the leaf surface.
Why would a plant want to repel a key resource like water? The current hypothesis is that superhydrophobicity keeps the surface of the leaf dry and clean, helping to promote photosynthesis through greater light absorption.
These leaves were on the Beckwith Pass trail in the West Elk Mountains, Colorado.