The objective of this research was to model the leaf area of velvet bean determined by digital photos with the dimensions of the central leaflet limb of the leaf. A experiment of 256m² was conducted with the culture of velvet bean in the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria. In six periods of culture development (29, 43, 57, 73, 87 and 101 days after emergence) were collected, randomly, 790 leaves. Each leaf is composed of the left, center and right leaflets. In these 790 leaves were measured the length (CFC) and width (LFC) and calculated the product length width (CFC×LFC) of the central leaflet. It was determined the leaf area (the leaf area sum of the left, center and right leaflets) by the method of digital photos (Y). Later, 650 leaves were randomly separated, to build the quadratic model, potency and linear of Y in function of the CFC, LFC and/or CFC×LFC. It was used 140 leaves for validation. The potency model of leaf area obtained by method of digital photos (Ŷ=3.6450 x1.9479, R²=0.9886) based on the width central leaflet, is adequate to estimate leaf area in velvet bean.
Stizolobium cinereum; digital photo; leaf dimension; linear model; correlation
