Leaf of a regular foliation ($T_{p}L={\mathcal{D}}_p$)

A leaf is a maximal connected integral manifold of the smooth constant-rank integrable distribution defining a regular foliation. It carries its intrinsic manifold topology and is immersed in the ambient manifold. It need not be embedded or closed. Local Frobenius theorem coordinates make each leaf segment a plaque with constant transverse coordinates; global confinement to an immersed leaf follows by joining such plaques along tangent curves.