© 1996 Heron Publishing—Victoria, Canada
Leaf allometry of Salix viminalis during the first growing season
Theo Verwijst (1) and Da-Zhi Wen (2)
1. The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Ecology and Environmental Research, Section of Short-Rotation
Forestry, Box 7072, 75007 Uppsala, Sweden / 2. The Chinese Academy of Sciences, South China Institute of Botany, Department of Plant Ecology, Guangzhou 510650, China / Received September 26, 1995
Summary
We established linear and exponential relationships between leaf area (A) and leaf length (L), leaf width (W), W2, L2 and LW, in Salix viminalis L. Most relationships were significantly nonlinear, but good fits were obtained with both linear and exponential models.
The nonlinear relationship between A and LW differed for leaves from sylleptic and proleptic shoots. Leaves from sylleptic and proleptic shoots also differed in specific
leaf area (area/weight). Leaf shape (width/length ratio and position of maximum leaf width) changed with leaf size and differed
for leaves from sylleptic and proleptic shoots. Leaf area could be modeled adequately using implicit shape descriptions. A
good fit was obtained when the basal and distal parts of the leaf were described as a parabola and an ellipse, respectively.
The average area of single leaves and specific leaf area increased both along vertical profiles within shoots and during the
growing period. Our results (1) indicate that nonlinear models should be used to estimate leaf area from linear leaf dimensions
for plant species with leaves that vary in shape with leaf size, and (2) demonstrate the dependence of leaf characteristics
on both sampling date during the growing season and spatial position in the canopy.
Keywords:
allometric relations, isometric relations, leaf shape, leaf size, specific leaf area.
