Compound leaf

A compound leaf has its blade divided into multiple leaflets attached to a shared stalk. The leaflets together form one leaf, despite resembling separate leaves.

Leaf: A plant organ that typically captures light, exchanges gases, and regulates water loss. A compound leaf is one leaf, with its blade divided into leaflets.
Pinnate leaf: A compound leaf whose leaflets are arranged along both sides of a central axis. It is the compound-leaf form organized along a rachis.
White clover: A low-growing legume with leaves typically composed of three leaflets. Its familiar trifoliate leaves exemplify a three-leaflet compound leaf.
Leaf phyllotaxis: The arrangement of leaves on a plant stem. Stem-level arrangement can help identify where each whole compound leaf begins.
Leaflet: One of the separate blade-like divisions of a compound leaf. Leaflets are the blade divisions that make a leaf compound.
Palmate leaf: A compound leaf whose leaflets radiate from a single point at the end of the petiole. Its leaflets share one attachment point rather than lining a rachis.
Horse chestnut: A tree whose large leaves typically have five to seven leaflets radiating from one point. Its palmate leaves make leaflet arrangement especially conspicuous.
Leaf margin: The edge of a leaf blade, which may be smooth, toothed, or otherwise shaped. A deeply divided margin can look compound without separating the blade into leaflets.
Petiole: The stalk connecting a leaf blade to a plant stem. The petiole carries the entire compound leaf, including its shared rachis.
Bipinnate leaf: A compound leaf in which the main axis bears smaller axes, each carrying leaflets. It adds a second branching level to pinnate leaflet arrangement.

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