Leaf characteristics of mature 2, 3 and 4-year-old North American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius L.) leaves on fruiting and non-fruiting (NF) plants were studied. Leaflets of the 2-year-old plants had the lowest fresh and dry weight, area, volume and internal gas volume. Inflorescence removal in 3-year-old plants did not affect leaf characteristics or ginsenoside concentration but in 4-yearold pl...

Understanding the vertical pattern of leaf traits across plant canopies provide critical information on plant physiology, ecosystem functioning and structure and vegetation response to climate change. However, the impact of vertical canopy position on leaf spectral properties and subsequently leaf traits across the entire spectrum for multiple species is poorly understood. In this study, we exa...

UNLABELLED PREMISE OF THE STUDY Specific leaf area (SLA) is a critical component of the leaf economics spectrum, and many functional leaf traits have been empirically demonstrated to covary with SLA. However, a complete understanding of how change in leaf size influences SLA has not yet emerged. • METHODS To help develop a more complete understanding of the determinants of variability in S...

In sclerophylls, photosynthesis is particularly strongly limited by mesophyll diffusion resistance from substomatal cavities to chloroplasts (r(m)), but the controls on diffusion limits by integral leaf variables such as leaf thickness, density, and dry mass per unit area and by the individual steps along the diffusion pathway are imperfectly understood. To gain insight into the determinants of...

In order to gain knowledge on the physiological and anatomical responses of plants to long-term growth under elevated CO2 concentrations, measurements of water status, leaf gas exchange and leaf anatomical characteristics were made during the rainy and the dry season in plants of Brownea coccinea and Spatiphylum cannifolium growing along a natural CO2 gradient, from 35000μmol·mol (supra-atmosph...

Statistical and radiative-transfer physically based studies have previously demonstrated the relationship between leaf water content and leaf-level reflectance in the near-infrared spectral region. The successful scaling up of such methods to the canopy level requires modeling the effect of canopy structure and viewing geometry on reflectance bands and optical indices used for estimation of wat...

Earlier work on the submergence-tolerant species Rumex palustris revealed that leaf anatomical and morphological changes induced by submergence enhance underwater gas exchange considerably. Here, the hypothesis is tested that these plastic responses are typical properties of submergence-tolerant species. Submergence-induced plasticity in leaf mass area (LMA) and leaf, cell wall and cuticle thic...

We are grateful to Givnish and Kriebel (2017) for providing a thorough review of the arguments that have been advanced to explain the latitudinal gradient in leaf form. Th eir paper was motivated by our recent “On Th e Nature of Th ings” essay presenting the “bud packing hypothesis” (BP) as an alternative explanation for why leaves in the temperate zone are so oft en toothed or lobed ( Edwards ...