• Journal of Plant Biology
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.63-72
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• 1995

The growth, size and morphology of leaves, which foliated on the same shoot and time in the early growth season, were studied in 12 woody species in temperate deciduous forests of Korea, and the equation for the index of heteromorphism of leaves was fonnulated. The numbers of leaves per shoot were from 3 to 7 in early growth season and the numbers of synchronous leafing were from 2 to 6. All the leaves on a shoot were reached maximum values of specific leaf arells at the SIlme time nearly. The differences of the length (L) and breadth (B) of leaves along leaf rank (plastochron) were conspicuous, except for Quercus variabilis. Especially, in 10 species, the ~fferences of the neighbouring leaves were significant at 0.001 or 0.05 level. The index of leaf heteromorphism was calculated from the data based on $L\;{\times}\;B$ and LIB, and similar to differences of actual leaves along leaf rank. The values of index of heteromorphism were high in Carpinus tschonosldi, Styrax obassia, Ulmus davidiana, Rhamnus yoshinoi and Symplocos chinensis for. pilosa, and low in Sorbus alnifolia and Tilia amurensis. The index of heteromorphism had no relation to other characters of the leaf or life fonn of the species. It was thought that the differences along leaf rank were related to the degree of adaptation to environment, especially to changing air temperature in early growth season.season.