Table 2.

Misreporting of data by Blonder et al. (2014) to claim support for their ‘vein origin’ hypothesis

Topic	Reporting by Blonder et al. (2014)	Actual finding or statement in Sack et al. (2013) or other literature
Correlation of LMA and VLA	‘Our model proposes that VLA should be correlated with LMA. In the data cited by Sack et al. ... three of three data sets support the LMA– VLA linkage [their Table 3.2]’	Table 3, row 2 reported that only one data set of six tested for LMA vs VLA showed the positive correlation predicted by Blonder et al. (2011). As stated in the text that single data set was for species of Acer adapted across a light gradient, and thus the trend was probably due to co-selection of both traits during adaptation to contrasting irradiances. Fig. 3a of Sack et al. (2012) showed LMA and VLA are independent when data are compiled across many species; see Fig. 1 of this paper for the updated version, now for 276 species in 68 plant families. Table 3, row 2 of Sack et al. (2012) also reported that neither of two data sets showed the positive correlation of LMA vs IVD predicted by Blonder et al. (2011).
Correlation of N mass and VLA	‘Our model proposes that VLA should be correlated with … N mass. and no data are presented for the N mass–VLA linkage except our 2011 results, which support predictions.’	Such a direct relationship was not proposed by Blonder et al. (2011); they hypothesized that N mass was determined by eqn 7, which in fact predicts a negligible, but negative influence of VLA (Table 2 of this paper). The VLA–N mass relationship was not significant across species- means in Blonder et al. (2011) (r = 0.27; P = 0.20). That relationship was also not supported in our compiled database (n = 162 species for this test; r = 0.08; P = 0.32).
Correlation of LL and VLA	‘Our model proposes that VLA should be correlated with LL. In the data cited by Sack et al. … three of three data sets support the LL–VLA linkage [their Table 3.4]’	Blonder et al. (2011) predicted that LL would be correlated with VLA due to their shared positive relationship with LMA. Table 3, row 4 of Sack et al. (2012) showed that in three of three data sets LL tended to be weakly correlated negatively with VLA across species, but in all three of three data sets this trend was not driven by the mechanism they proposed, since it occurs independently of LMA (i.e. the trend exists even when LMA is partialled out). As also described in Table 3, row 4 of Sack et al. (2012), this trend probably arises due to co-selection of both traits during adaptation to contrasting environments. In the one data set tested, the trend disappeared for Helianthus when mean annual precipitation was partialled out.
Correlation of A mass with VLA	‘Our model proposes that VLA should be correlated with A mass … In the data cited by Sack et al. … one of one data set supports the A mass–VLA linkage [their Fig. 8]’	Such a direct relationship was not proposed by Blonder et al., 2011; they hypothesized that A mass was determined by Eqn 6, which was negligibly sensitive to VLA (Table 2 of this paper). The VLA–A mass relationship was not significant across species- means in Blonder et al. (2011) (r = 0.34; P = 0.13). This relationship was shown for the first time to our knowledge in a large compiled data set for 119 species by Sack et al. (2012). Contrary to the vein origin hypothesis, this relationship arose independently of LMA, because VLA drove A area (Fig. 8 of Sack et al., 2012).
Contribution of minor veins to leaf volume	‘the volume contribution of minor veins does play an important role in high-VLA leaves (Feild and Brodribb, 2013)’	Feild and Brodribb (2013) showed that in high VLA leaves, the minor vein diameter was lower and thus the minor vein volume per leaf area (= VLA × π × minor vein radius2) was lower: ‘Many of the most densely veined angiosperm leaves known bound the lower limits of leaf cost, with low leaf mass per area’.
Overall support for their model	‘Sack et al. (2013) examined the theoretical basis and empirical evidence for the Blonder et al. (2011) venation model and found limited support.’ ‘Sack et al. (2013) … feel that empirical support for the proposed correlations is weak.’ ‘At this point, multiple lines of evidence at both the intra- and interspecific scale are consistent with the main predictions of the Blonder et al. models.’	We found no support at all for the ‘vein origin’ hypothesis and clearly stated this in the Abstract and throughout the 2013 paper.