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Scanned Leaves 03


Iro Koii

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These two are opposite sides of a leaf from a sweet gum tree. It is also sometimes called the "Red Gum", but that runs the risk, on the internet at least, of confusing it with an Australian tree. This tree is a fast growing native that almost always has a perfectly round trunk. It can grow to be quite large, 30" at the base and 60' tall. It is one of the few native trees that will give us a little color in the fall on the Gulf Coast, but only once in every three or four years. Most of the time it does what all the other native trees do, it goes from green to brown to leafless in a couple of weeks. For fall color we imported a tree from China, but I'll talk about it in another post.
 

wbiss

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:) These are great Iro Koii! I just might suggest that you put all the 'scanned leaves' into one thread as an easy resource for all to find! ;)

If you like the idea and agree, I can move these for you!
 

Iro Koii

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If you think its best, Wendy, go ahead. I was breaking them up into separte threads because someone complained about load times. With all of them in one thread, it does take longer for all the pictures to load, but that doesn't make any difference to me personally.
 

wbiss

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;) pages load one at a time so it really isn't going to make that BIG a difference, Iro Koii. I just think that it makes more sense to be able to go to one thread when looking for a particular leaf!

:) I'll 'combine' all, later...
 

Iro Koii

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While I'm online I'm going to upload two more. These are from another morning glory, a cultivar called "Moonflower".
 

Sanby

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Great scans.

Thnx for sharing.

Sanby
 

Iro Koii

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Thanks, Sanby, and you're welcome.

Here is another leaf from a sweet gum tree. It is the same species, just a different tree. Why there is such a large variation in size and shape is something of a mystery to me.

BTW: when these leaves turn color they turn dark crimson. That may be why the tree is sometimes called a "red gum".
 

sfm

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Iro I want to second the thanks..... I am gradually adding to folder of leaves......... I have lost count of how many times I have needed just this sort of thing to finish a project off!....... now if we could only do flowers this way he he he..... unfortunately they flatly refuse to be flattened :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
sfm
 

Welles

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A little woody tidbit from a newbie...

The sweet gum is also known as the black gum a bit farther north than GA, along about Virginia, Maryland, and northward. The tree is a semi-hard wood with a very straight, circular trunk (as Iro noted) with little foliage down low, meaning few or no knots in the main portion of the trunk. Combine that issue with the fact that the wood is about as tasteless as wood gets and you'll understand why it is the wood used in popsicle sticks, wooden ice cream spoons, and coffee stirrers. 10 feet long sections of the trunks are put on machines which look like giant lathes and they are 'peeled' into 3/32" thick sheets. Then the items are die cut from the sheets and put into large driers (which look like oversize clothes driers), with a bit of parafin, to be tumbled dry and be readied for packing. There...more than you ever wanted to know about popsicle sticks!

Forgive me, I couldn't help myself.
 

wbiss

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[stuned] I didn't know that! ;)

That's fascinating information Welles!

Thanks for sharing and WELCOME ABOARD! :perfect: :)

Iro Koii, it seems that we don't have the necessary module (yet) to 'merge threads'. Mark will look into that following the weekend, so in the meantime, keep those scans a coming! :)
 

Iro Koii

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Okay, Wendy!

Here's a leaf from the "Red Oak." The heartwood is indeed red and can be polished to a beautiful finish. However, be ready to do lots and lots of sanding. All of the oaks produce very hard, tough wood. Red oak is the easiest to split, making it popular in a great many applications where one needs to split the wood rather than sawing it, but less than popular where splitting is likely to be a problem.
 

Iro Koii

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Variations in leaf size are not that unusual, even on a single tree, but the red oak carries this to something of an extrema as you can see from this battered old veteran of this summer's battles with weather, insects and fungii.
 

wbiss

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:perfect: Iro Koii! I always appreciate the little background info that you give with these scans!
 

Iro Koii

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You're welcome, Wendy.

Here's a leaf from a different kind of "wait-a-minute" vine. This one is odd because the shiny side is down! I don't know what it is with wait-a-minute vines, but they're definitely different.

It's funny, but Welles had to do tons of work before he could start scanning. Me, I can do five minutes of gathering specimens, then I have hours of scanning to do. Chalk it up to my $80.00 scanner's speed, but I really do have to be careful how many leaves I collect before I start scanning. If I collect too many, several of them will be too wilted to be useful.
 

Iro Koii

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These are opposite sides of a leaf from the persimmon tree. The fruit is a curious thing and I've never seen them sold at a grocer. The native variety has a nice flavor, but you can't eat it until after it has been hit by a frost. Why? Because it will turn your mouth wrong side out--as though it were laced with alum. For all I know, it is lace with alum. Wait until after a freeze! They're fine then. Oddly enough, they are pickled in the orient. Can you imagine? Pickled plums and persimmons? Whoa! My head nearly collapses everytime I think about it.

Iro.
 

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