Leaf Serration in Seedlings of Heteroblastic Woody Species Enhance Plasticity and Performance in Gaps But Not in the Understory

Table 3

Means of the anatomical traits from nine homoblastic and heteroblastic (hetero) Hoheria and Aristotelia species in canopy gap and forest understory sites with standard errors in parenthesis. Species followed by the same letter are not different at 5% level of significance within a genus.

	Leaf blade (𝜇m)	Cuticle (𝜇m)	Upper epidermis (𝜇m)	Palisade mesophyll (𝜇m)	Lower epidermis (𝜇m)	Stomatal pore area; (density × aperture length); (𝜇m mm^−2)
Forest understory
H. lyallii	99.7(0.9)^a	0.87(0.02)^a	17.4(0.26)^a	26.8(0.23)^a	14.1(0.19)^a	2168(36)^b
H. sexstylosa (hetero)	81.4(1.4)^b	0.72(0.02)^b	16.6(0.27)^a	22.5(0.28)^b	12.3(0.18)^b	2466(36)^a
A. serrata	79.6(1.0)^b	0.66(0.02)^b	18.1(0.32)^b	22.2(0.30)^b	13.3(0.19)^a	1994(29)^b
A. fruticosa (hetero)	100.0(1.4)^a	0.85(0.02)^a	21.7(0.41)^a	28.8(0.60)^a	12.0(0.17)^a	2312(39)^a
Canopy gap
H. lyallii	186.4(2.3)^a	1.36(0.03)^a	22.5(0.32)^a	78.9(1.3)^a	14.1(0.18)^a	5189(91)^b
H. sexstylosa (hetero)	159.4(1.9)^b	1.02(0.02)^b	16.5(0.26)^b	72.1(1.1)^a	12.1(0.15)^a	6247(110)^a
A. serrata	130.6(1.3)^b	1.07(0.02)^b	29.2(0.40)^b	52.6(0.6)^b	10.9(0.18)^b	5024(90)^b
A. fruticosa (hetero)	230.6(1.3)^a	2.23(0.03)^a	37.2(0.52)^a	116.6(0.8)^a	13.2(0.15)^a	5214(58)^a