Sampling Deciduous Broadleaved Trees for the Determination of Leaf Weight and Foliar Elemental Concentrations

Foliar samples, collected from forest-grown trees of sugar maple (Acersaccharum Marsh.), white ash (Fraxinusamericana L.), and black cherry (Prunusserotina Ehrh.), were analyzed for mean weight per leaf and for concentrations of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Mn, and Zn. The data were subjected to analysis of variance among branches within trees, among trees within stands, and among stands. Among stands of a species, differences in mean concentration of 20% of the range reported in the literature could be detected (P = 0.05) for most elements by sampling foliage from two small branches taken from the midcrown of each of 15 trees per stand.