Maximum wetness duration for water drops on leaves in the field

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A model which simulates the drying of water drops on plant leaves has been tested in a field of maize. The model is based on laboratory simulations of evaporation from isolated large drops (Leclerc et al., 1985, 1986), augmented with equations to describe the contribution of radiation to drying. Drops with long lifetimes had an initial hemispheroidal shape (low surface-to-volume ratio) and a constant basal area. They comprised 44% of the observed droplet population and the model predicted their evaporation rates within ±10%. The remaining 56% dried more quickly, often because they spread out as they evaporated.