Leaf surfaces are multifunctional interfaces between plant and their environment which affect both ecological and biological processes. Leaf surface topography is an important characteristic that directly affects microhabitat and microclimate availability for dust deposition, water storage and microbial colonization. However, few studies have been conducted which measure accurately the three dimensional structure of the leaf surface or record precise changes of leaf surface microstructure over time. The Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is one of the most powerful tools for determining the surface topography of native biomolecules at subnanometer resolution, and can image a wide variety of samples under variable conditions, thus providing a new way to probe biological structures. Using oscillating mode AFM, we measured the two- and three-dimensional coordinates of adaxial and abaxial surfaces of Ligustrum lucidum and Viburnum odoratissimum, two common perennial plant species for urban greening in Xi'an City, on leaves of two age classes. We then produced topographic maps of these leaf surfaces, which revealed striking differences between adaxial and abaxial surfaces and between age classes. The leaf surface was uneven due to wax crystals, stomata, various cells, papillae and hollows. For Ligustrum lucidum, the roughness of adaxial and abxaxial surface was 417.8 nm and 794.5 nm for young leaves, 1069 nm and 957.4 nm for old leaves, respectively. Old leaves had much rougher surfaces than young leaves. However, in Viburnum odoratissimum, the roughness of adaxial and abaxial surface for young leaves was 471.3 nm and 469.6 nm respectively, and 291.1nm and 865.9 nm for old leaves. The adaxial surface of young leaves was rougher than old leaves, but the abaxial surface was the converse. The roughness of plant leaves was much greater than artificial surfaces with only several nanometer elevation. The different change of leaf surface roughness in the two plants may be related to the development of stomata, the changes of amount, chemical composition, and crystal structure of cuticular wax. There existed many papillae and hollows on the adaxial surface of these two plants with a radius of about 10 μm; a structure able to capture PM₁₀ (particle matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 10 μm), which was now thought to be the most important of the commonly occurring air pollutants. The shape of the epidermal cells of the old leaves in these two plants was irregular, and the stomatal apparatus only distributed on the abaxial surface and sunk into epidermis. It can be inferred that the two species examined in this study showed high dust capturing capacity and stress tolerance of drought and environmental pollutants, and can be recommended for introduction as avenue trees along road sides or as road dividers. Our results also indicated that AFM was an effective method for quantifying and comparing leaf surface landscape patterns and identifying the critical features at a scale relevant to both biological and physical processes on the leaf surfaces.