In article <199604160246.WAA02830 at biosrv1.bio.mtu.edu> jmglime at MTU.EDU ("Janice M. Glime") writes:
>To David Oppenheim and other plant-edders,
> The leaves on mosses are called phyllids, but most bryologists simply
>call them leaves. You will find that most of the moss literature refers
>to them as leaves. I suspect they were dubbed leaves long before some
>vascular botanist decided to narrow the definition to blades with vascular
>tissue to distinguish "true" leaves from enations.
>Janice
Anyway, the "true leaves" of vascular plants probably evolved
independently several times in different major groups. So, despite the lack
of homology, calling the moss appendages "leaves" is not likely to cause much
additional confusion. [For that matter, the main gametophytic axis or "stem"
of a moss is perhaps just as hard to equate with the "true stems" of vascular
plant sporophytes...]
regards, mdt
