Fig. 3

Cut sections of leaf material can be used to accurately make period estimates. The second leaf from 25 day old wheat seedlings was either left whole or sectioned into 10 cm or 4 cm fragments cut either 5 cm or 15 cm from the tip (shown as dark grey sections in a). The first leaf from 21 day old Brassica plants was either left whole, sectioned into a 3 cm square or quartered (b). Orange boxplots show differences in period (c) and RAE (d) for wheat sections. Purple boxplots show differences in period (e) and RAE (f) for brassica sections. Period and RAE were estimated using FFT NLLS, BAMP dtr, 24–120 h cut-off. Whole leaves were digitally sectioned along the axis of the leaf post image-acquisition. Wheat period and RAE means for each section are shown in g. Brassica period and RAE means are plotted corresponding to the sectioning shown in h. Error bars show standard deviation. Data represents results from two experiments normalised for the between-experiment effects. Wheat: Whole (N = 15/15), 10 cm (N = 23/23), 4 cm top (N = 20/21), 4 cm bottom (N = 22/22). Brassica: Whole (N = 20/20), Square (N = 21/21), Quarter (N = 75/76). Significance codes: **p < 0.01