Moss leaf shape optimizes for water where trees optimize for light

Evidence

The leaves of trees are uniformly flat, to intercept as much light as possible, and spaced far from one another to prevent shading. But light is of less concern to mosses than is water. Therefore, the nature of moss leaves is entirely different from trees’. Each leaf is shaped to make a home for water. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss, 191

Categorization

• SEED: The leaf as water-home not light-panel is an angle for a piece on re-seeing the most common object in the forest — what else do we misread by assuming a single design driver?
• XREF: connects to: Some mosses thrive on a tiny fraction of the sunlight others require — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural…, 628; Leaf arrangement in layers sets which light regime favors a tree species — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 1318; Colonial packing, not individual form, is what holds water in moss — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural…, 185 (+1 more)