How Plants Keep Dry: A Physicist's Point of View

Abstract
This work describes the investigation of the physical basis of the amazing water repellence of some plant leaves, which is in addition to self-cleaning properties known as the “Lotus effect”. Two rather different possible mechanisms are proposed, which are suggested to cover the main physics in a majority of superhydrophobic systems. These concepts are illustrated with two different types of plant leaves as well as a model surface carrying carbon nanotube aggregates.