Scientists at University of Costa Rica target agriculture and forestry.

"We estimated the magnitude of the total leaf area of the neotropical palm Euterpe oleracea and examined its allometry relative to the variation in stem height and diameter at La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica. The allometric relationships between frond leaf area and frond length (from tip to base), and between frond leaf area and number of leaflets, were determined by natural logarithmic regressions to estimate the total area of each frond," scientists in San Jose, Costa Rica report.

"Palm total leaf area was then estimated by adding the area of the composing fronds. We fit 14 separate regression models that related one or more of the morphological variables (number …