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Updated: Jan 5, 2026

Relating Stomatal Conductance to Leaf Functional Traits
Published on: October 12, 2015
Heterophylly: Phenotypic Plasticity of Leaf Shape in Aquatic and Amphibious Plants
Gaojie Li1, Shiqi Hu2, Hongwei Hou3
1The State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, The Key Laboratory of Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, Hubei, China. ligaojie@ihb.ac.cn.
Abstract:
Leaves show great diversity in shape, size, and color in nature. Interestingly, many plant species have the ability to alter their leaf shape in response to their surrounding environment. This phenomenon is termed heterophylly, and is thought to be an adaptive feature to environmental heterogeneity in many cases. Heterophylly is widespread among land plants, and is especially dominant in aquatic and amphibious plants. Revealing the mechanisms underlying heterophylly would provide valuable insight into the interaction between environmental conditions and plant development. Here, we review the history and recent progress of research on heterophylly in aquatic and amphibious plants.
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