Canopy Cover
Canopy cover or crown cover describes the area represented by the vertical projection of plant foliage onto the ground. Canopy cover is determined as the perimeter of the plant at its widest horizontal plane. It generally assumes that small gaps within the foliage are included and an average crown perimeter is imagined to smooth irregular edges.
References and Further Reading
Daubenmire, R. 1968. Plant communities: A textbook on plant synecology. Harper Row, New York, NY. pp 42-43.
Stephenson, S.N., and M.F. Buell. 1965. The reproducibility of shrub cover sampling. Ecology 46:379-380.