Leaf growth and development determines a plant's capacity for photosynthesis and carbon fixation. These morphological traits are the integration of genetic and environmental factors through time. Yet fine dissection of the developmental genetic basis of leaf expansion throughout a growing season is difficult, due to the complexity of the trait and the need for real time measurement. In this stu...

Epiphylls widely colonize vascular leaves in moist tropical forests. Understanding the effects of epiphylls on leaf traits of host plants is critical for understanding ecological function of epiphylls. A study was conducted in a rain forest to investigate leaf traits of the host plants Photinia prunifolia colonized with epiphyllous liverworts and foliicolous lichens as well as those of uncoloni...

Here, we tested hypothesized relationships among leaf and fine root traits of grass, forb, legume, and woody plant species of a savannah community. CO2 exchange rates, structural traits, chemistry, and longevity were measured in tissues of 39 species grown in long-term monocultures. Across species, respiration rates of leaves and fine roots exhibited a common regression relationship with tissue...

The aim of this study was to evaluate phenotypic variation of R0 androgenic plants obtained from four seed sources and donor plants by anther culture. Several morphological traits (leaf size, petiole length, leaf division, cortex colour) and the range of diversity were evaluated. There was large variation in all traits among the donor varieties. Especially leaf division and cortex colour differ...

Wetland indicator status (WIS) describes the habitat affinity of plant species and is used in wetland delineations and resource inventories. Understanding how species-level functional traits vary across WIS categories may improve designations, elucidate mechanisms of adaptation, and explain habitat optima and niche. We investigated differences in species-level traits of riparian flora across WI...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The collection of field data on plant traits is time consuming and this makes it difficult to examine changing patterns of traits along large-scale climate gradients. The present study tests whether trait information derived from regional floras can be used in conjunction with pre-existing quadrat data on species presence to derive meaningful relationships between specific m...

The ecophysiological mechanisms underlying the pattern of bimodal elevational distribution of evergreen tree species remain incompletely understood. Here we used leaf economics spectrum (LES) theory to explain such patterns. We measured leaf economic traits and constructed an LES for the co-existing 19 evergreen and 15 deciduous species growing in evergreen broad-leaved forest at low elevation,...