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| Storm winds shook the trees of the arboretum last week, rustling branches and scattering loose twigs onto the ground. Although messy, this provides us with ample opportunity to study and compare a broad sample of leaves. Our big old mature trees tend to drop only their lower branches, leaving their fresh summer-time foliage out of reach. One such specimen is the aged post oak (Quercus stellata) standing near the Student Union Building. Its gnarly branches are way up high, but this week some of those upper story leaves were knocked out of the canopy. |
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| From the ground, there were a lot of nice leaves to sort through. We see variations in size and shape, but the general shape description runs the same: roughly cross-shaped with five lobes. Although, does anyone else get the feeling that these leaves are reaching out for hugs? |
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| This photo aptly captures one prominent quality of the leaf surface: shininess! With the leaves laying flat on the pavement, sunlight bounces off the leaf surface. |
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| Standing the leaf up against the wet bricks takes away some of the shine. |
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| Irregular leaves make tree identification difficult. But, if you already know that it's a post oak, you can appreciate the irregularity, and say, "Hey, that's an interesting shape! Cool." |
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| An irregular, but still more-or-less recognizable, post oak leaf |
