Leaf area calculating based on digital image

A new and simple method for plant leaf area measurement using image processing technique was provided. Sixty leaves with different shape and size of six plant species were selected for study. The software using for image processing and leaf area calculation was matlab6.0. Experiments were performed to test the performance of the estimating system by comparing the estimated leaf area with the grid square leaf area. The range of relative errors of estimation were 4.42-7.81%, 3.56-8.01%, 4.12-6.97%, 3.89-7.28%, 4.23-8.12% and 3.56-7.03% for Eucommia Bark, Paulownia, Maidenhair tree, Bamboo, Cycad, Weed respectively. The results illuminate the more close to rectangle area the more accurate of the estimating leaf area. So it can be concluded that the method developed in this study obtained the sufficient accuracy for the possible non-destructive leaf area measurement.