A simple model simulating the construction of blade and sheath length in maize

Thinking at plant architecture as emerging from a simple set of construction rules is a very appealing feature of L-Systems. In the context of crop modeling, it opens new ways to model the effects of environmental stresses on crop architecture, by pointing to regulation loops that are ignored in usual models (Fournier et al., 2007). As such, the triggering of leaf development by emergence events, which has been for long suggested to exist (Dobrynin 1960, Malvoisin 1984, Skinner and Nelson 1994), offers a simple and elegant frame for re-analysing the regulation by the environment of leaf area development (Durand et al., 1999, Fournier et al., 2005a). This would also explain the persistence of stable patterns in plant architecture, despite the variability of environmental conditions in which plants grow. Here we illustrate that point with a simple model simulating some of the regulation processes likely to be involved in the construction of maize shoot architecture.