title: Dynamic scaling in the growth of a non-branching plant, Cardiocrinum cordatum.
abstract: We investigated whole-plant leaf area in relation to ontogenetic variation in leaf-size for a forest perennial herb, Cardiocrinum cordatum. The 200-fold ontogenetic variability in C. cordatum leaf area followed a power-law dependence on total leaf number, a measure of developmental stage. When we normalized for plant size, the function describing the size of single leaves along the stem was similar among different-sized plants, implying that the different-sized canopies observed at different times in the growth trajectory were fundamentally similar to each other. We conclude that the growth trajectory of a population of C. cordatum plant leaves obeyed a dynamic scaling law, the first reported for a growth trajectory at the whole-plant level.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Science, Ishikawa Prefectural University, Nonoichi, Ishikawa, Japan. konpei.koyama@gmail.com
authors.forename: Kohei
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Koyama
authors.forename: Yoshiki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hidaka
authors.forename: Masayuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ushio
mesh_terms: D019668:Liliaceae / Q000254:growth & development*; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000254:growth & development