PJB-2023-144
Comparison of leaf size of common plants between field measurements and scientific flora records
Shanshan Yang, Huiying Gong, Shaolin Tan, Yadong Zhou and Boyun Yang
Abstract
Plant trait data from scientific floras are frequently utilized in analyzing the geographical distribution and functional characteristics of plant species. Leaf area is an important functional trait of plants and can be estimated using the formula, Area = Length × Width × K. The length and width values are typically obtained from earlier records in scientific floras, and K represents the parameter. Since the data recorded in floras typically represents a range of values, estimating leaf area using this data requires making a reasonable choice. In this study, we concurrently collected data of accurately measured 1616 leaves from 39 common plants with entire or finely serrated leaves, including the leaf length, width, and area of each leaf. Furthermore, length and width of the studied plants was also extracted from the Flora of China. We conducted a comparative analysis of the two datasets and examined the potential use of the recorded information in floras for estimating leaf area. Additionally, we assessed the suitable value of parameter K to be employed in the formula. Our findings indicate that the data recorded in scientific floras are consistent with field measurements, and can be used to estimate leaf area. The present result also clears that the median values of leaf length and width from flora recordings provided the most accurate estimates of leaf area. Additionally, we determined that the appropriate value for the parameter K in the formula is π/4 for leaves that are entire or finely serrated. This study provides insights into how data recorded in scientific floras can be applied in large-scale geographical studies of plant functional traits
To Cite this article:
Yang, S., H. Gong, S. Tan, Y. Zhou and B. Yang. 2024. Comparison of leaf size of common plants between field measurements and scientific flora records. Pak. J. Bot., 56(2): DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.30848/PJB2024-2(5)
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