A great question from a middle school student

[TC]

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"How does a maple or really any tree's leaf shape help the tree? Try to give an example"

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The wide variety of leaf shapes represent different evolutionary strategies.

Over millions of years trees have adapted their leaves in countless different ways to achieve the optimum results from the elements.

 

[Silva]

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I've often wondered how/why the ray-shaped, actino-type leaf arrangements came about. The speculation: "The genus of the tea plant is Actinodaphnae, which includes the prefix meaning star-shaped or radial (actino-), referring to how the leaves of the plant radiate from the stems. The effect of a radial arrangement is for the leaves to harvest the maximum amount of sunlight, or for fine new roots to occupy the maximum amount of soil.”probably needed "...with a minimum of extension/distance for resources to travel." or some such added.

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Given the available facts... I'm left scratching my head also.

 

[TreeClimberMike]

One fascinating reason is wind resistance.

http://dbs.umt.edu/dbs/research_labs/breunerlab/documents/Vogel_Drag_Reconfiguration.pdf

I'd read speculation that the aspen's tendency to shake might have something to do with knocking bugs off at low speeds, but high speed wind resistance makes a bit more sense.

 

[jomoco]

I love those bird feeders that spin squirrels off them through a weight activation mechanism!

Leaf my bird food alone you fur bearin varmint!

jomoco

 

[oceans]

Welcome to the Buzz, Mike!

 

[niceviews]

I was talking to an old forester who studied out in Utah. He remembered a professor telling him that quaking aspens evolved to have long petioles that allowed them to flip from one side to other, increasing their photosynthetic capacity per leaf.