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Saturday - January 10, 2015

From: Missoula, MT
Region: Rocky Mountain
Topic: General Botany, Herbs/Forbs
Title: Information about Erigeron annuus and Erigeron philadelphicus
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

Hi! I am looking for information about the specific leaf area of Erigeron annuus and Erigeron philadelphicus. Do you know of anyone who is working with any these species, who might be able to provide this information? I have done an exhaustive literature search and can't find the information published anywhere. Thanks so much. Lauren

ANSWER:

If you are looking for leaf dimensions there are leaf descriptions from Flora of North America of Erigeron annuus and Erigeron philadelphicus that give leaf dimensions. You would then have to calculate the area. Here are several methods for doing that:

Pandey, S. K. and Hema Singh. A simple, cost-effective method for leaf area estimation. Journal of Botany. Volume 2011 (2011), Article ID 658240.

Surface Area of a Leaf Teacher Sheet from AAAS Science NetLinks.

Chaudhary, P. et al. Fast and accurate method of leaf area measurement. International Journal of Computer Applications. (0975-8887) Volume 49, no. 9, July 2012.

Are you looking for information on calculations of the Leaf Area Index of Erigeron annuus (Daisy fleabane) and Erigeron philadelphicus (Philadelphia fleabane)? If so, I did find the following citations/abstracts of articles that might be useful to you:

Abstract of: Lee, Ho-Joon. 1992. Germanition (sic), shade toarance (sic) and community characteristics on Erigeron annuus L. in Cheju. Korean Journal of Ecology. 01/1992: 15(2).

Mooney, H. A. et al. Photosynthetic capacity in relation to leaf position in desert versus old-field annuals. Oecologia (Beri) (1981) 50:109-112.

Tritikova, Miluse. 2008. Altitudinal limit of Erigeron annuus in the Swiss Alps. Diss. ETH No. 18015. ETH Zurich.

If neither of these is what you're looking for, please send Mr. Smarty Plants another question with clarification.