BACKGROUND AND AIMS The gibberellin-insensitive Rht-B1b and Rht-D1b dwarfing genes are known to reduce the size of cells in culms, leaves and coleoptiles of wheat. Resulting leaf area development of gibberellin-insensitive wheats is poor compared to standard height (Rht-B1a and Rht-D1a) genotypes. Alternative dwarfing genes to Rht-B1b and Rht-D1b are available that reduce plant height, such as ...

Leaves are ideal model systems to study the organ size regulation of multicellular plants. Leaf cell number and cell size are determinant factors of leaf size which is controlled through cell proliferation and post-mitotic cell expansion, respectively. To achieve a proper leaf size, cell proliferation and post-mitotic cell expansion should be co-ordinated during leaf morphogenesis. Compensation...

The laminae of leaves optimize photosynthetic rates by serving as a platform for both light capture and gas exchange, while minimizing water losses associated with thermoregulation and transpiration. Many have speculated that plants maximize photosynthetic output and minimize associated costs through leaf size, complexity, and shape, but a unifying theory linking the plethora of observed leaf f...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS In species with specialized pollination, floral traits are expected to be relatively invariant and decoupled from the phenotypic variation affecting vegetative traits. However, inferring the degree of decoupling between morphological characters from patterns of phenotypic correlations is difficult because phenotypic correlations result from the superimposition of several sou...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Hydrophytes generally exhibit highly acquisitive leaf economics. However, a range of growth forms is evident, from small, free-floating and rapidly growing Lemniden to large, broad-leaved Nymphaeiden, denoting variability in adaptive strategies. Traits used to classify adaptive strategies in terrestrial species, such as canopy height, are not applicable to hydrophytes. We hy...

Leafing intensity, i.e. the number of leaves per unit of stem volume or mass, is a common developmental correlate of leaf size. However, the ecological significance and the functional implications of variation in leafing intensity, other than its relation to leaf size, are unknown. Here, we explore its relationships with plant height, growth form, leaf size, and leaf habit to test a series of c...

Although leaf size is one of the most responsive plant traits to environmental change, the functional benefits of large versus small leaves remain unclear. We hypothesized that modification of leaf size within species resulting from differences in irradiance can allow leaves to acclimate to different photosynthetic or evaporative conditions while maintaining an efficient balance between hydraul...