Leaf area prediction of sweet potato cultivars: An approach to a non-destructive and accurate method

• Published in: South African journal of botany 2024-09, Vol.172, p.42-51
• Main Authors: Ribeiro, João Everthon da Silva, Silva, Antonio Gideilson Correia da, Lima, John Victor Lucas, Oliveira, Pablo Henrique de Almeida, Coêlho, Ester dos Santos, Silveira, Lindomar Maria da, Barros Júnior, Aurélio Paes
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biometrics; Convolvulaceae; Leaf length; Leaf width; Regression models
• ISSN: 0254-6299
• DOI: 10.1016/j.sajb.2024.07.006

•The equations that use the product between L and W are the most suitable for predicting LA.•The linear and power models are the most suitable for estimating the leaf area of sweet potato cultivars;.•The proposed non-destructive method presents high accuracy for four sweet potato cultivars. Many researchers consider the leaf area the most critical parameter for plant growth and physiology studies. Using allometric equations is considered an effective and non-destructive method for estimating the leaf area of plants. The objectives of this study were to construct allometric equations to predict the leaf area of sweet potato cultivars as a function of leaf dimensions and to verify the effectiveness of the allometric equations constructed for each cultivar individually and for the grouped data. Two hundred fifty leaves of the sweet potato cultivars Beauregard, BRS Amélia, BRS Cuia, and Coquinho were collected, and then the length and width of each leaf were measured. Subsequently, the product between leaf length and width and the actual leaf area was calculated. Linear, linear without intercept, power, and exponential regression models were used to construct allometric equations to predict leaf area. The best equations were chosen according to the highest coefficients of determination and correlation, Willmott agreement index, and lowest Akaike information criterion and root mean square error. The equations obtained with the linear models without intercept and power using the length and width of the leaves were the most indicated for predicting the leaf area of sweet potato cultivars.