During the winter months in Louisiana, the sun comes in at an angle and hits the bare limbs and trunks of our deciduous trees, resulting in long shadows on the landscape. Often these shadows are mixed together or they collide with the shadows of other objects, but sometimes they stand alone, exhibiting the quintessential form of the tree. Last winter we studied the shadow cast by a post oak onto the south-facing wall of Mickle Hall (read
here). Open lawns also provide a good surface for cast shadows.
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| At about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides) and its neighboring winged elm (Ulmus alata) were throwing strong shadows on the grassy slope near Rotary Hall. The cottonwood has a thick, straight trunk, and thus casts a corresponding thick, straight shadow. Nothing too noteworthy. The winged elm, however, possesses an elegant vase shape, the shadow of which stretches out on the lawn: the form of the tree is more readily visible as a shadow than by looking at the tree itself. |
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| This particular winged elm, growing on the slope by Rotary Hall, is an old, on-site native. The gray bark is rough and fissured. Although perhaps the progenitor of a younger volunteer in the catalogue, this individual has not been included in the arboretum catalogue until today. We will keep track of it, and most likely study it again next week. |
Check out an autumnal picture of the elm and the cottonwood
here.
