Fig. 3

A comparison between the closed form solution and the solution of finite element models for stalk flexural stiffness (a) and for stalk bending strength (b), n = 768, as a function of deflection normalized by plant height. Histograms of the error between the closed form solution and the finite element models for stalk flexural stiffness (c) and for stalk bending strength (d), n = 768. a demonstrates that significant errors can occur at very small (near-zero) deflections. A deflection of 2.5% to 20% of the stalk height is recommended to minimize error during stalk flexural stiffness phenotyping experiments