Construction and observation of the 3D virtual walnut leaf bud

In this study, micro computed tomography (Micro-CT) was employed to scan the leaf buds of walnut, and 898 scanning pictures with a total of 3.4 GB were obtained. The shape, size, external characteristics and internal structure of walnut leaf buds were clearly displayed by reconstructing the 3D virtual leaf buds based on the scanning images. Our results showed that the structure of the leaf bud, in successive order from outside to inside, was composed of squamae, young leaves and vascular bundles, and there were 8 bud scales and 5 young leaves for each leaf bud. The results suggested that this technology would provide an effective way for the realization of 3D visualization of walnut leaf bud, and the video production of virtual observation of fruit tree leaf bud, as well as the construction of digital leaf bud.