<i>LeafArea</i> : an R package for rapid digital image analysis of leaf area

Abstract

Abstract Measuring leaf area is essential to quantifying other leaf functional traits. This paper introduces a new R package, LeafArea , which allows one to conveniently run ImageJ ( http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/ ) within R. The functions in this package analyze multiple scanned leaf images in the target directory, generate multiple output files containing the leaf area of each leaf image, and then process and combine these files into a single file in a format that is convenient for subsequent analyses. Leaf area data from multiple images from the same sample can be combined automatically. This function allows users to cut large leaves into several pieces during scanning. The package provides a user‐friendly, automated tool for measuring leaf area from scanned images.