Monocot Leaves

In monocots the leaf veins are parallel. 

Leaves are the main photosynthetic organs of most plants.   The leaf is cloaked by its epidermis, with cells tighlty interlocked like pieces of a puzzle.  Its waxy cuticle makes the epidermis also the barrier to the loss of water from the plant.  The epidermal barrier is only interrupted by the stomata, tiny pores flanked by specialized epidermal cells called guard cells.  The stomata allow gas exchange between the surrounding air and the photosynthetic cells inside the leaf.   They are also the major avenues for the loss of water from the plant, a process called transpiration. 

The ground tissue of a leaf, sandwiched between the upper and lower epidermis is called mesophyll.  It consists mainly of parenchyma cells equipped with chloroplasts and specialized for photosynthesis.

The vascular tissue of a leaf is continuous with the xylem and phloem of the stem by a leaf trace, a strand of vascular tissue that branches at a node from a vascular bundle in a stem. 

It's not easy being green so to return to your home lily pad click here.