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Leaf shape and symmetry is of interest because of the importance of leaves in photosynthesis. Recently, a novel method was proposed to measure the extent of bilateral symmetry in leaves in which a leaf was divided into left and right sides by a straight line through the leaf apex and base, and a number of equidistant strips were drawn perpendicular to the straight line to generate an equivalent number of differences in area between the left and right parts. These areal differences are the basis for a measure of leaf bilateral symmetry, which was then examined to see how well it follows Taylor’s power law (TPL) using three classes of plants, namely, 10 geographical populations of Parrotia subaequalis (H.T. Chang) R.M. Hao et H.T. Wei, 10 species of Bambusoideae, and 10 species of Rosaceae. The measure of bilateral symmetry followed TPL for a single species or for a class of closely related species. The estimate of the exponent of TPL for bamboo plants was significantly larger than for the dicotyledonous trees, but its goodness of fit was the best among the three classes of plants. The heterogeneity of light falling on branches and leaves due to above-ground architectural patterns is an important contributor to leaf asymmetry.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	Bambusoideae, bootstrap, log-transformation, Parrotia subaequalis, Rosaceae
Research Division:	Mathematical Sciences
Research Group:	Applied mathematics
Research Field:	Biological mathematics
Objective Division:	Plant Production and Plant Primary Products
Objective Group:	Horticultural crops
Objective Field:	Horticultural crops not elsewhere classified
UTAS Author:	Ratkowsky, DA (Dr David Ratkowsky)
ID Code:	127833
Year Published:	2018
Web of Science® Times Cited:	15
Deposited By:	TIA - Research Institute
Deposited On:	2018-08-19
Last Modified:	2019-03-20
Downloads:	65 View Download Statistics