We tested the existence of general patterns in the photosynthetic meta
bolism of oxygen-evolving organisms, based on a compilation of data fo
r 315 species ranging from cyanobacteria to tree leaves. We used thick
ness and chlorophyll a concentration of the photosynthetic structure (
cell, thallus, leaf) to scale differences in photosynthetic metabolism
among plants, because of the demonstrated importance of these plant t
raits in regulating light absorption properties and photosynthetic rat
es of particular plant groups. We examined only the properties of the
photosynthetic structure because this is the plant unit responsible fo
r the photosynthetic process and thus is closely related to plant prod
uctivity, whereas there is a lack of general quantitative descriptors
of the whole organism useful for such broad-scale comparisons, and few
studies report net photosynthetic rates of whole organisms, including
respiration rates of all nonphotosynthetic structures. The results de
monstrated that descriptors of plant metabolism such as maximum net ph
otosynthesis, initial slope of the photosynthesis-irradiance (PI) curv
e and dark respiration display strong positive interrelationships. The
metabolic rates declined with increasing thickness of the photosynthe
tic structures and more steeply for photosynthesis than respiration. P
hotosynthetic rates also changed with increment of volume of the photo
synthetic structure resembling patterns that have been previously desc
ribed for animal metabolism related to body weight. The strong relatio
nship of metabolic rate and chlorophyll a concentration to the thickne
ss of photosynthetic tissue reflects broad-scale patterns and not the
adaptive response of individual or closely-related species of similar
tissue thickness to varying environmental conditions. Thickness of the
photosynthetic structures, therefore, plays an important role in the
environmental control of plant performance and, consequently, it might
have been an important driver of plant evolution, setting thresholds
to the metabolism and productivity of phototrophic organisms.