There are millions and millions of plant species in the world. Each of them has a different type of leaf with a different texture. This is what today’s article is about. The texture of the leaves it can vary tremendously depending on size, hardness, feel, surface, limbus, and more.
We are going to review all the types of textures that we can find on the leaves. Do you want to learn about it? You just have to keep reading
Types of leaf texture
Touch
The first texture that we are going to analyze part of the sensation when touching them. The feel of a blade can be smooth or rough. These are the best known to people. The rougher, the more glasses it has. On the other hand, we find the hairy or hairy ones. There are them with a velvet touch and stormy. Lastly, we have those that are rough and flaky in texture. The scales usually fall off when they molt to new tissues.
Hardness
The hardness of the blade is the ability not to be bent by an external force. Depending on how hard it is, we find it:
- Mix
- Leathery
- Rigid or hard
Area
The surface of the sheet could be said to be its size. Depending on the need to capture more sun for photosynthesis we find different types of surface. The textures are:
Limbo
According to the limbo we can find it:
There are two other textures that do not depend on any of these factors and are the viscous and the lustrous texture.
Leaf color
Just as the textures of the leaves vary depending on the species, so does the color. We can find this range of colors:
- Light green, yellowish green or glaucous
- bluish green
- Purple
- Medium green
- Dark green
- Reddish
- Orange
- Silver green or whitish green
- Variegated: Mix of yellow or white on green
How is the texture of the flowers?
We have seen the texture of the leaves, but … is that of the flowers the same? Not quite. The parts that form them, in the vast majority of cases, are attractive to the animals that pollinate them. Therefore, they are:
Touch
They are usually soft. Some are cottony, but many others are velvety. However, with those of certain species you have to be careful, as they are thorny.
Hardness
The types of hardness of the flowers coincide with those of the leaves, so they can be soft, leathery, or hard.
Area
The surface of the flowers is that of the petals, bracts and / or sepals that it has. Thus, we have:
- Simple flowers: they are those with a single crown of petals.
- Compound flowers: also called inflorescence. They are a group of tiny flowers arranged in a floral chapter, which is formed by bracts (modified leaves that look like petals).
Flower color
The color will vary greatly depending on the species and / or cultivar, but keep in mind that the color gamut of the flowers is very, very wide: green, red, pink, white, bluish, variegated, tricolor, yellow tones, …
There are so many, and so different, that it is not surprising that plants with showy flowers occupy a prominent place on balconies, terraces, patios and of course in gardens.
How to decorate with plants taking into account their texture?
Colours
Image – Flickr / JR P
When decorating with plants, texture is one of the things that we must take into account the most, since If, for example, greenish colors predominate in the place where they will be, the leaves of the plants that we want to add must be of some shade that stands out.
Imagine that you already have your garden, balcony or patio with plants, but the area looks too green. If you want to add color, it will be very interesting to look for yellowish, reddish or even variegated species, such as ‘Maurelli’ pot-bellied vine which has beautiful purple-green leaves, Acer palmatum cv ‘Aureum’ that has them green-yellowish, or the euonymous that has them variegated.
Cold and warm
Colors are classified in different ways, but above all according to whether they are cold or warm. Colds are from the lower half of this graph: from greenish to purple; on the other hand, the warm ones are the yellowish, orange and reddish ones.
In landscaping and interior decoration with plants it is necessary to start from the base that the stems and leaves are usually greenish; that is to say, ‘cold’, on the other hand the flowers -usually- of warm colors. For this, It is not always easy to find specimens that stand out, and when they are found, they should be placed in special areasor at least, be used as indicators that will take us to those areas, such as the swimming pool for example.
Touch
The touch that the plants have will determine, to a large extent, if that garden or balcony is cozy or not. Think about it: we all like to touch the leaves, approach the flowers to see if they smell, caress the trunk. But we usually stay away from the thorny ones, by pure instinct, unless it is clear that we love the cactus and this type of plant beings .
Even so, thorny plants should be avoided near roads and areas where we are going to spend more time. On the contrary, the ‘harmless’ ones, that is, those with soft or semi-soft leaves, it is interesting to put them nearby, in a place that is not only visible but also easily accessible.
We hope you have learned a lot about the texture of leaves and flowers, and can take advantage of it to create dreamy corners .
