Europe PMC · 2026-01-29
Flowering plants dominate nearly every ecosystem on Earth, and a new mathematical model reveals why: their leaf vein networks move water so efficiently that the energy savings fund a built-in backup system, keeping photosynthesis running even after physical damage — an advantage no other major plant group possesses.
Angiosperm leaf vascular architecture outperforms both gymnosperms and ferns across every efficiency metric modeled, including water transport cost and distribution uniformity.
The efficiency advantage is driven by two measurable architectural properties: the branching exponent (how efficiently veins supply tissue) and the vein placement ratio (how evenly water is distributed across the leaf).
Superior efficiency generates a quantifiable bioenergetic surplus that is reinvested into a redundant, fault-tolerant vascular network — sustaining high photosynthetic rates even after physical damage that would cripple less efficient plant lineages.
