microphylln.
/ˈmʌɪkrə(ʊ)fɪl/, U.S. /ˈmaɪkroʊˌfɪl/, /ˈmaɪkrəˌfɪl/ 1. Botany. A type of (usually small) leaf having a single medial vein, characteristic of the lycophytes (clubmosses, spikemosses, and quillworts). Cf. megaphyll n. 1.
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the world > plants > part of plant > leaf > [noun] > other types of leaf
ear leaf1835
microsporophyll1888
megaphyll1908
microphyll1908
megaphyll1918
1908 New Phytologist 7 125 On the general point of the relation of the ‘microphyll’ to the ‘megaphyll’, there is no evidence of any capacity of the microphyll to evolve into the megaphyll.
1932 Proc. Linn. Soc. 145 26 In most cases there is an early differentiation between..the simple microphylls and the branch systems or ‘telomes’ which later evolved into the megaphylls of the higher plants.
1957 Ann. Bot. 21 434 In the manner of their inception, there is no essential difference between microphylls and macrophylls though very marked differences become evident during their further development.
1982 Science 19 Nov. 793/2 Microphylls have been valuable for identifying living and fossil members of the large group of plants generally known as Lycophyta or Microphyllophyta.
1998 L. Margulis & K. V. Schwartz Five Kingdoms (ed. 3) v. 375 The club moss leaf, called a microphyll, has only a single vascular strand and lacks the leaf gap characteristic of megaphylls.
2. Chiefly Ecology. A plant with small leaves. Also (in the Raunkiaer system of leaf size classification): a relatively small leaf having a surface area of between 225 and 2025 square millimetres; a plant having such leaves. Frequently attributive.
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the world > plants > part of plant > leaf > plant defined by leaves > [noun] > plant characterized specific type leaves
trefoilc1425
microphyll1915
1915 F. Shreve Vegetation Mountain Desert Range 11 The course of the vegetational panorama is not merely a gradual transition from the open desert of succulents and microphylls to the heavy fir forest which occupies the summit.
1917 Jrnl. Ecol. 5 45 The bajadas bear the characteristic (1) Microphyll and Cactus vegetation of the Arizona desert.
1932 Ecology 13 22 Raunkiaer's classes of leaf sizes are used, the following being the class size limits:..Microphyll: 9 × 25–92 × 25 sq. mm. (225–2,025 sq. mm.).
1944 Ecol. Monogr. 14 157 Exposed leaves are more frequently in the ‘microphyll’ class.
1961 Ecol. Monogr. 31 52/1 Analysis of leaf-sizes in the Big Woods showed that 58% of the species were microphylls.
1995 Ecology 76 2207/2 Pteronia pallens (Asteraceae), a narrow-leaved, evergreen microphyll shrub.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1908