This is a mounted specimen of leaves from a common hackberry tree. This is a thin branch with 2-3 offshoots, and there approximately twenty leaves attached. Each leaf has prominent veining, with a central vein and symmetrical veins on either side. The leaves are green, have jagged edges, and their generally ovular shape ends in a taper. The leaves are generally around 12 cm in length and the overall mount measures approximately 41 x 29 cm. This specimen description was written remotely based on images as part of Amber Kreiensieck's internship in Fall 2021.
- Catalog Number:
- 400887
- Object/Specimen Description:
- Specimen Count:
- 4
- Collector:
- N. Erwin
- Locality:
- US Mid Atlantic (PA, NJ, MD, DE, DC, VA, WV)
- Collecting Date:
- 03 Jun 2013
- Collecting Locality:
- North America, United States, Virginia, Fairfax County
- Upper Level Taxonomy:
- Plantae, Equisetopsida, Magnoliidae, Rosanae, Rosales, Cannabaceae
Dicots begin their lives as seeds nourished by two seed leaves (cotyledons). The leaves provide nutrients to the developing seed until it grows its first real leaves that can make food by photosynthesizing. Most flowering plants are dicots, which includes many of the foods humans enjoy: grapes, squash, soybeans, strawberries, tomatoes, potatoes, peanuts, etc. You can tell a dicot by its characteristic branching leaf veins. Not only do dicots feed us, they also cloth us; cotton, linen, and hemp are dicots. Because dicots and conifers are the only plants able to form wood, they are central to our building industry. Wood is extra plant tissue for transporting water and nutrients (vascular tissue). It forms when cells specialized for growth (meristems) continue to divide. The result is that the tree grows, adding to its width and height. Maples, oaks, and hickories, all sources of wood, are dicots.