The world on the bottom of a big-leaf maple leaf
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Joel Geier
Jul 14, 2014, 11:49:48 PM7/14/14
to Mid-Valley Nature
Hi all,
Yesterday at Luckiamute State Natural Area, while enjoying the sounds and smells of walking through a deciduous forest with a thunderstorm coming through and the first few drops of rain falling -- this really takes me back to southern Minnesota summers, and one particular dirt road that ran out through a woods to one particular lake -- I noticed that some of the big-leaf maples have been dropping their leaves, perhaps in response to the recent hot spell.
I picked up this one leaf and brought it home, mostly because I was struck by the pattern, but secondarily because I thought it would be fun to declare that "autumn is upon us!" (some members of our household always get really mad when I do that, every summer around this time, but I can't resist).
I no longer have a working camera, but I realized that this leaf would -- well, not quite -- fit onto my flatbed scanner. For a sense of scale, the leaf is just a bit too large to fit on a standard 8-1/2 x 11 inch page.
The top of the leaf (first image) is more colorful, but the bottom side (second image) is really where things are happening. I didn't notice most of this until after I scanned the leaf.
The real center of activity is near the base of the leaf, where the veins diverge (third image). In the upper right-hand corner, you can see a cluster of nine empty chrysalis husks from some small insects, identities unknown to me (any ideas?). At the base of the main veins, you can see where other small arthropods have spun little webs to protect them while -- presumably -- they make use of this prime bit of real estate. I tried pulling apart this webbing with a sewing needle while I watched with a hand lens, and a very tiny critter came running out -- so small that even under a 10X hand lens it still just looked like a tiny dot with legs.
Just to the left of the chrysalis husks, you can see a dried fragment of leaf, which in real life is about 2.5 mm wide by 4 mm long. This bit of leaf seems to be held on by electrostatic forces, perhaps with the aid of a few insect- or spider-generated fibers. When I lifted it up with with the tip of the needle, a very small insect with an elongated body came running out, and made a short circuit just outside the boundaries of this image, before (feeling guilty about having disturbed it), I chased it back under its bit of dried leaf.
Far, far out on the edge of one of the main lobes -- at least 70 mm away -- in the fourth image you can see some spider webbing, with the pale greenish spider's body still visible underneath.
Also interesting are the "dead spots" on the leaf. The fifth image shows a close-up of one of these spots, which is about 4 mm x 2 mm. The pale interior region, when viewed with a hand lens, actually has a dark green background but the paleness comes from the veins which appear to be entirely dessicated. Around this you can see the darker, irregular "front" of the spot (maybe caused by a fungus??) as it advances, and then the healthy leaf beyond. There are half a dozen similar spots on this leaf, none of them very large compared with the leaf itself.
I have no idea what most of these things are and will be happy if any of you can enlighten me. In any case, it was an eye-opener to take this close view at an ordinary, extraordinary leaf. There are other things happening on this leaf that I haven't even mentioned.
It was also fun to realize that my scanner is good for something besides taking images of last year's tax returns.
Happy exploring,
Joel
--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis
Yesterday at Luckiamute State Natural Area, while enjoying the sounds and smells of walking through a deciduous forest with a thunderstorm coming through and the first few drops of rain falling -- this really takes me back to southern Minnesota summers, and one particular dirt road that ran out through a woods to one particular lake -- I noticed that some of the big-leaf maples have been dropping their leaves, perhaps in response to the recent hot spell.
I picked up this one leaf and brought it home, mostly because I was struck by the pattern, but secondarily because I thought it would be fun to declare that "autumn is upon us!" (some members of our household always get really mad when I do that, every summer around this time, but I can't resist).
I no longer have a working camera, but I realized that this leaf would -- well, not quite -- fit onto my flatbed scanner. For a sense of scale, the leaf is just a bit too large to fit on a standard 8-1/2 x 11 inch page.
The top of the leaf (first image) is more colorful, but the bottom side (second image) is really where things are happening. I didn't notice most of this until after I scanned the leaf.
The real center of activity is near the base of the leaf, where the veins diverge (third image). In the upper right-hand corner, you can see a cluster of nine empty chrysalis husks from some small insects, identities unknown to me (any ideas?). At the base of the main veins, you can see where other small arthropods have spun little webs to protect them while -- presumably -- they make use of this prime bit of real estate. I tried pulling apart this webbing with a sewing needle while I watched with a hand lens, and a very tiny critter came running out -- so small that even under a 10X hand lens it still just looked like a tiny dot with legs.
Just to the left of the chrysalis husks, you can see a dried fragment of leaf, which in real life is about 2.5 mm wide by 4 mm long. This bit of leaf seems to be held on by electrostatic forces, perhaps with the aid of a few insect- or spider-generated fibers. When I lifted it up with with the tip of the needle, a very small insect with an elongated body came running out, and made a short circuit just outside the boundaries of this image, before (feeling guilty about having disturbed it), I chased it back under its bit of dried leaf.
Far, far out on the edge of one of the main lobes -- at least 70 mm away -- in the fourth image you can see some spider webbing, with the pale greenish spider's body still visible underneath.
Also interesting are the "dead spots" on the leaf. The fifth image shows a close-up of one of these spots, which is about 4 mm x 2 mm. The pale interior region, when viewed with a hand lens, actually has a dark green background but the paleness comes from the veins which appear to be entirely dessicated. Around this you can see the darker, irregular "front" of the spot (maybe caused by a fungus??) as it advances, and then the healthy leaf beyond. There are half a dozen similar spots on this leaf, none of them very large compared with the leaf itself.
I have no idea what most of these things are and will be happy if any of you can enlighten me. In any case, it was an eye-opener to take this close view at an ordinary, extraordinary leaf. There are other things happening on this leaf that I haven't even mentioned.
It was also fun to realize that my scanner is good for something besides taking images of last year's tax returns.
Happy exploring,
Joel
--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis
Rick Kleinosky
Jul 15, 2014, 9:27:08 AM7/15/14
to mid-vall...@googlegroups.com, joel....@peak.org
On Monday, July 14, 2014 8:49:48 PM UTC-7, joel.geier wrote:
Hi all,
Yesterday at Luckiamute State Natural Area, while enjoying the sounds and smells of walking through a deciduous forest with a thunderstorm coming through and the first few drops of rain falling -- this really takes me back to southern Minnesota summers, and one particular dirt road that ran out through a woods to one particular lake -- I noticed that some of the big-leaf maples have been dropping their leaves, perhaps in response to the recent hot spell.
I picked up this one leaf and brought it home, mostly because I was struck by the pattern, but secondarily because I thought it would be fun to declare that "autumn is upon us!" (some members of our household always get really mad when I do that, every summer around this time, but I can't resist).
I no longer have a working camera, but I realized that this leaf would -- well, not quite -- fit onto my flatbed scanner. For a sense of scale, the leaf is just a bit too large to fit on a standard 8-1/2 x 11 inch page.
Joel, Thanks for the mini-safari.
Nancy B
Jul 15, 2014, 5:48:33 PM7/15/14
to joel....@peak.org, Mid-Valley Nature
Making All those bushtits and chickadees very happy.
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