Let’s continue our overview of some botanical basics.
Last time I talked about leaf venation and this time I’m going to talk a little about leaf arrangement.
Alternate: This is when you see a leaf on the left side of a stem, then a little bit up there’s a leaf on the right side of the stem.
Opposite: This arrangement has leaves growing out of both sides of the stem at the same place on the stem.
A sub arrangement of both is called Alternate Opposite: This is a popular arrangement in the mint family. You’ll notice that the leaves are opposite, but every other one the little opposite bundle will be going the opposite direction:
The last one I want to introduce is Whorled. In this arrangement, you’ll see leaves arranged in a circular pattern around the stem, cleavers is a perfect example of a whorled arrangement:
