Gomphocarpus cancellatus leaves

It is debatable whether the Gomphocarpus cancellatus leaves in picture are fully sessile or have the shortest of petioles. It is similarly debatable whether these leaves are opposite throughout, the common leaf positioning in the genus and species.

Sexual reproduction involves genetically determined individual differences causing natural selection that brings about evolutionary adaptation. The living is but also becomes.

This becoming can be divided into three phenomena: the growth from seed to old plant in one life, the phenology of repeated seasonal transformation cycles manifested in sprouting, blooming, fruiting and rest, as well as the longer cycle shifts in inherited features of the species, carried by subsequent generations of surviving specimens.

The stem in picture is hairier in patches than the visible lower surfaces of the ascending leaves. The thick midribs are slightly prominent on the lower surfaces, diminishing without disappearing to the tips.

Dark green, incurving lateral veins are conspicuous on some of the upper leaves, more or less vanished from sight on most. The entire, sometimes wavy leaf margins are purplish red throughout (Manning, 2007; Bean and Johns, 2005; iNaturalist).