Sugar Maple Leaf

Sugar Maple Leaf, May 14, 2003
There were lots of beautiful wildflowers in bloom on the day that I made this photo, but somethng about this leaf lying on this log attracted my attention. I guess I was trying to be creative. I was attracted by its pattern and simplicity. Also, as I recall, it was getting a little bit windy, but unlike the wildflowers, this leaf was not moving around. This is where I found it, and this is where it stayed.
I like the way this photo shows the tissue-paper thin maple leaf that had fallen from its tree approximately six months before. Unlike oak leaves with lots of tannins to preserve them, maple leaves tend to lose their color and decay rather fast.
I also like the way this photograph shows the pattern of viens within the leaf, and how the main three viens radiate outward from a single point by the stem. This arrangement of veins is called palmate. All maple leaves have a palmate arrangments of their veins, though it not always as obvious as this.