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Heterophylly and Anisophylly (With Diagram)!
Usually all the leaves on a plant are more or less of the same shape when mature. Some plants may have different kinds of leaves, e.g., scale leaves and foliage leaves. But, there are only a few plants which show different types of foliage leaves.
This is found specially in some plants which remain partly submerged and patly in air. The submerged leaves are usually dissected while the aerial leaves are more or less entire.
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This is the case in water chestnut (Trapa), Ranunculus aquatilis , Ranunculus multifidus, Myrio- phyllum indicum, Limnophila heterophylla , Sagittaria, etc. This phenomenon is known as heterophylly.
Heterophylly is also noticed in some land plants like coriander (Coriandrum sativum), Pterospermum, Artocarpus chaplasa, Ficus heterophylla, etc.
A different phenomenon is noticed in some plants with opposite phyllotaxy. Usually opposite leaves on a plant are of the same size but in certain rare cases (e.g., in Goldfussia glomerata of Acanthaceae and Pellionia daveanana of Urticaceae) they are of un- equal size. This is known as anisophylly. 