- published: 01 Nov 2011
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A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants.
Typically a leaf is a thin, flattened organ borne above ground and specialized for photosynthesis, but many types of leaves are adapted in ways almost unrecognisable in those terms: some are not flat (for example many succulent leaves and conifers), some are not above ground (such as bulb scales), and some are without major photosynthetic function (consider for example cataphylls, spines, and cotyledons).
Conversely, many structures of non-vascular plants, or even of some lichens, which are not plants at all (in the sense of being members of the kingdom Plantae), do look and function much like leaves. Furthermore, several structures found in vascular plants look like leaves but are not actually leaves; they differ from leaves in their structures and origins. Examples include phyllodes, cladodes, and phylloclades.
Caroline Leaf (born August 12, 1946 in Seattle, Washington) is a Canadian-American filmmaker and animator.
Leaf made her first film, Sand, or Peter and the Wolf, in 1968 at Harvard University. The short was made by dumping sand on a light box and manipulating the textures frame-by-frame.
Her second film, Orfeo (1972), had her painting directly on glass under the camera. Later that year she was invited to join the National Film Board of Canada's English Animation Studio.
She mixed paint with glycerine to produce The Street, adapted from the short story of the same name by Mordechai Richler, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 49th Academy Awards.
From 1981 until 1986 she worked on various live action documentary films. In 1986 she produced her first animation in nearly a decade by scratching on 70mm color film and reshooting it on 35mm. "Two Sisters" (1990) won the award for best short film at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in 1991. In 2004 she co-directed "Suite for freedom" (her part was called "Slavery"). It was included in the Animation Show of Shows in 2004.