Odd pinnate 2

More pondering on whether odd pinnate really existed or not, following the rather inconclusive ponderings at reference 1.

But first the self-storage going in to what was the Majestic warehouse, where the roof, the floors and the windows are now going in. Self storage which I now know is 'Big Yellow Self Storage' of reference 2. From which I learn they do both lockers and rooms, and that you provide your own padlock. But I don't seem to get prices without getting a quote - which might get me more plugged in than is appropriate - so perhaps I will have to go in and ask when they open next year.

After which it was time to inspect the alternate leaves of a laurel, with alternate leaves being a proxy of sorts for the leaflets of a pinnate leaf. And the terminal bud might be informative.

It turns out that the general form is much the same as that which featured at reference 1, with the alternate leaves starting quite close together but quickly spacing out to their adult distance and with something complicated going on at the terminal bud.

Big buds in the axils between the leaves and the stem. Presumably ready to spring into life should need arise, through grazing, clipping or otherwise.

And what about the brown spots at underneath the stem ends of the leaves? Are they part of the plant or something to do with some kind of animal? Feature or bug?

Here we have what looks to be the tip of a primary stem, that is to say the bulge between the penultimate and the last leaves, between the blue spot left and the orange spot right, respectively. With the antepenultimate leaf below the orange spot. 

We have what looks like an emerging bud to the left of the bulge, on the blue side. And a lump which is going to become a bud to the right, on the orange side?

Maybe if one was to dissect the bulge under a microscope one would learn more?

More of the same, but from a quite different plant.

A zoom of the tip. Maybe time lapse photography would be the thing, so that one could see how the tip really grows, how the buds emerge from nowhere?

While this privet does not seem to be alternate at all. Maybe opposite with the pairs spiralling up the stem. Must take another look.

Back with odd-pinnate, seemingly clear enough in this case. Where most but not all of the other leaflets are opposite.

But some are near misses; almost opposite. As can be seen to the left of the orange spot. This I have seen before.

And lastly, something completely different. Opposite, rotating 90° at each step up the stem.

To be further digested.

PS 1: a leafy diagram. I think there are a few errors, but useful just the same. Turned up by Bing from Alamy. The original zooms pretty well, but I don't suppose that this copy will. I have learned about stipules, which may protect the leaf as it emerges from the stem, for which see reference 3. Guessing, any bud in the axil develops outside the stipules, but that is something else to check, not yet having turned up a diagram showing both. The distinction between monocotyledon and dicotyledon also seems to be relevant to leaf development, so something else to follow up, starting with reference 4.

PS 2: reference 5 looks helpful too - and looks to link back to phyllotaxis, another hobby horse. Provenance presently unknown.

There is lots of stuff out there - so there are clearly lots of people out there who take an interest in all this.

PS 3: I see from reference 6 that one of the survivors of the energy supply extinction event of 2021-22 is looking a bit wobbly. It remains a mystery to me what value has been added by all these new players - apart from glossy new customer-facing websites and marketing - but then here in Epsom we stick with EDF for electricity and British Gas for gas. The former being French and the latter I know not what.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/09/odd-pinnate-1.html.

Reference 2: https://www.bigyellow.co.uk/.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stipule.

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dicotyledon.

Reference 5: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/3488/e126cc530b50c9b1aa53a5dbe23e19b7a3c1.pdf.

Reference 6: Ovo warns of ‘material uncertainty’ over its going concern status: Household energy supplier makes disclosure after failing to meet industry regulator’s capital adequacy targets - Rachel Millard, Financial Times - 2025.