The length of leaves of successive generations increased, and displayed lower NDFD. Groot and Neuteboom
(1997) and Duru and Ducroq (2002) point out that the lower
NDFD in longest leaves is associated with the increase of
the sheath tube, which determines a higher leaf age at the
time of its emergence outside the sheath tube. Results of
this present study indicate that 0.6 points of NDFD is lost
every 10 mm of length increase (Fig. 2), without changes
in NDF content. Similar results were obtained in other C3
and C4
species (Di Marco and Agnusdei, 2010; Avila et al.,
2010; Agnusdei et al., 2009).