Endless forms most functional: uncovering the role of natural selection in the evolution of leaf shape

“There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” —Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species, p. 429 As the major photosynthetic organ of most plants, leaves are critical to...