Leaf area estimation of Anacardium humile

Abstract The Anacardium humile A. St.- Hil. fruit tree has productive potential, being their fruits appreciated in the Cerrado region for having characteristic flavor, however, this species is still exploited in an extractive way, being necessary studies for its domestication. The aim of this work was to estimate the leaf area of Anacardium humile. One hundred leaves were collected in the biological collection from a genetic resources field and evaluated for length, width and fresh weight, and scanned at resolution of 300 dpi to determine the leaf area with the aid of the ImageJ image analysis program. Subsequently, a leaf disc with a diameter of 22.27 mm was detached at the basal portion of each leaf, in which the fresh weight of the discs was obtained. Data were submitted to descriptive analysis and the relationship among the features explained by Pearson’s correlation with the software Rbio. The data were also subjected to regression analysis to explain the relationship between leaf area and measurements of width, length and leaf weight, and to fit the proper statistical model with the software Origin. It was concluded that leaf area can be determined by image analysis software and linear measurements are correlated to leaf area.