State of the art in functional-structural plant modeling

Abstract

The advances in trees and plants architecture and their physiology analysis, and on the other hand the advances in computer sciences, have permitted the development of 3D structural plant models. The basic modeling units are usually leaves internodes, buds and fruits or flowers. The state of the art is presented in this kind of models, as are also the functional-structural models that are integration between structural models and physiological ones. Some tools and concepts used in this kind of modeling, as L-Systems, automata cellular, stochastic modeling, are also presented. The future trend will be a stronger development of these models, including variations due to environment and management, in order to support the decision taking.