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Annals of Botany 72: 165-172, 1993
© 1993 Annals of Botany Company
The Scaling of Plant Height: A Comparison Among Major Plant Clades and Anatomical Grades
Section of Plant Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA
The scaling plant height h (m) with respect to stem diameter d (m) was determined for a total 610 species (mosses, n = 40; pteridophytes, n = 16; dicotyledonous herbs, n = 117; palms, n = 17; gymnosperms, n = 105; dicotyledonous trees, n = 315); axial length or mass vs. d was determined for the pteridophyte Psilotum nudum ; and the scaling of critical buckling height hcrit of gymnosperm and dicotyledonous trees was calculated based on the record trunk d and average Young's modulus E and density p of 33 wood species. The scaling exponents (based on least squares and reduced major axis regressions; 
LS and RMA, respectively) of these relations were compared to expected values for three scaling models: elastic similarity, = 0·666; stress similarity, = 0·500; and geometric similarity, = 1·00. Least squares regression of the data from all species yielded h = 22 d0·91 (r2 = 0·955, n = 610; RMA = 0·93). The scaling exponent of this formula complied best with the geometric similarity model ( 
1·00). However, differed among plant clades and anatomical grades: mosses, LS = 1·10 (r2 = 0·974; RMA = 1·12); pteridophytes, LS = 1·69 (r2 = 0·847; RMA = 1·83; herbaceous dicotyledons, LS = 1·26 (r2 = 0·742; RMA = 1·46); palms, LS = 1·76 (r2 = 0·940; RMA = 1·82); gymnosperm trees, LS = 0·430 (r2 = 0·247; RMA = 0·87); dicotyledonous trees, LS = 0·488 (r2 = 0·515; RMA = 0·69); woody species (gymnosperm and dicotyledonous trees, LS = 0·538 (r2 = 0·541; RMA = 0·73); and non-woody species, LS = 1·29 (r2 = 0·949; RMA = 1·32). Based on RMA, the interspecific scaling of woody species complied neither with the stress or elastic similarity model. Regression of hcrit yielded the formula hcrit = 97·7 d0·689 (r2 = 0·969; RMA = 0·70), which was interpreted to support the assumption that E/p a constant among gymnosperm and dicotyledonous woods. Intra- and interspecific variations in RMA caution against using any of the three scaling models to predict h based on d across a broad taxonomic spectrum of species, although, on the average, RMA < 1·0 and RMA > 1·0 for woody and non-woody species, respectively.Copyright 1993, 1999 Academic Press
Plant allometry, biomechanics, trees
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