Enations are scaly

leaf A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

like structures, differing from leaves in their lack of

vascular Blood vessels are the structures of the circulatory system that transport blood throughout the human body. These vessels transport blood cells, nutrients, and oxygen to the tissues of the body. They also take waste and carbon dioxide away from ...

tissue. They are created by some leaf diseases and occur normally on ''

Psilotum ''Psilotum'' is a genus of fern-like vascular plants. It is one of two genera in the family Psilotaceae commonly known as whisk ferns, the other being '' Tmesipteris''. Plants in these two genera were once thought to be descended from the earlie ...

''. Enations are also found on some early plants such as ''

Rhynia ''Rhynia'' is a single-species genus of Devonian vascular plants. ''Rhynia gwynne-vaughanii'' was the sporophyte generation of a vascular, axial, free-sporing diplohaplontic embryophytic land plant of the Early Devonian that had anatomical fea ...

'', where they are hypothesized to have aided in

photosynthesis Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy that, through cellular respiration, can later be released to fuel the organism's activities. Some of this chemical energy is stored i ...

References

Plant morphology Botanical nomenclature {{botany-stub