Skip to content
Paper Play

Plants & flowers

Hornbeam leaf

A hornbeam leaf waits in its bud folded like a fan and opens in spring. Fold a paper leaf the same way and open it.

  • DifficultyIntermediate
  • PaperSquare, 15 × 15 cm
  • Steps7
  • About15 min

Why this level: You pleat evenly spaced folds, then fold every crease at the same time.

You need: 1 sheet of origami paper, Thin paper works best

Preview Preview: checked on screen; real-paper verification is in progress.

Start folding

Story

Through the winter, the leaves of hornbeam and beech trees wait inside their buds, pleated like a fan along their side veins, and in spring they come out and their pleats open. In 1998 scientists studied these leaves with mathematics, treating each one as a flat sheet with straight folds. They found that when the side veins meet the midrib at a wider angle, the leaf packs smaller in the bud but takes longer to open.

Did you know? The creases of this paper leaf work like the Miura fold, which opens all at once with a single pull — so pulling the tip opens every pleat together.

Learn more (external sources)

Steps at a glance

  1. 1. Fold in half on the midrib

    Coloured side up, with a corner pointing up. The diagonal from the bottom corner to the top corner is the midrib of the leaf. Fold the left corner over to the right corner.

  2. 2. Fold the tip down

    Imagine 6 lines parallel to the bottom edge that split the triangle into 7 equal strips. Fold the tip down in front along the top line (valley fold).

  3. 3. Pleat back and forth

    At the next line fold behind (mountain fold), at the one after that in front (valley fold), and so on down to the last line. You get a small, long pleated bundle.

  4. 4. Open everything

    Unfold the pleats, then open the leaf out flat. Now parallel side veins run out from the midrib on both sides.

  5. 5. Set the side veins

    Starting at the stalk end, pinch the pairs of side veins gently: valley, mountain, valley, and so on. Each pair makes a V with the midrib.

  6. 6. Fold it up like a bud

    Slowly push the tip and the stalk end toward each other. The side veins fold deeper and the midrib folds too, mountain and valley in turn. Press it all the way: it becomes a small bundle, like a leaf inside its bud.

  7. 7. Spring: the leaf opens

    Hold the tip and the stalk end and pull gently: every pleat opens at once. Push and it closes into a bundle again; stop halfway and it looks like a new leaf just out of its bud. Your hornbeam leaf is done!

Settings

Clear saved data