Physiological Effects of Surface Waxes: I. Light Reflectance for Glaucous and Nonglaucous Picea pungens.

Foliage reflectance was studied on glaucous and nonglaucous foliage of blue spruce (Picea pungens Engel.). Current-year and 1-year-old glaucous and nonglaucous foliage from mature trees and seedling glaucous and nonglaucous foliage had similar reflectance patterns in the 350 to 800 nanometer region. The highest reflectance was in the 750 to 800 nanometer region and the lowest reflectance was in the 670 nanometer region. Glaucous foliage had a higher percentage of light reflectance at all of the wavelengths of light. The largest difference of reflectance between glaucous and nonglaucous foliage was in the 350 nanometer region with a general decline in the difference to the smallest difference at the 800 nanometer region.