While half the country now lies under a blanket of white snow, along Piney Woods Church Road, a small white flower with a yellow center in the Asteraceae family has come into bloom. I have not idea what it is, but it adds a note of hope to winter’s approach, gracing the roadside with its delicate form.
Two blades of a wood oat plant, one already browned, the other green turning to yellow, catch the mid-November late-afternoon light and beckon to the photographer-pilgrim.
As the natural history term d’jour, a fascicle refers to a cluster of pine needles; various pine species have different numbers of needles in each grouping. Loblolly pines have fascicles of three. In this case, the pine needle fascicles are balancing on branches somewhere down Piney Woods Church Road.
From my walk late this afternoon, here are four illuminated leaf portraits:
Along Piney Woods Church Road grow many plants, including stately oak and hickory trees, weedy sassafras and loblolly pine trees, and dozens of shrubs and ground plants, both annuals and perennials. Amongst them all, many are quite photogenic and invite me to return to them again and again as the seasons advance: muscadine grape, greenbrier, and white oak fall firmly into this category. Then there is dog fennel (Eupatorium capillifolium): tall (several feet), gangly, frilly, with nondescript flowers and seeds, and a pungent yet not particularly pleasant aroma. Today, a dog fennel plant was in seed alongside the road, illuminated by the afternoon sun. I dedicated myself to taking its portrait. The result is the two “experiments” below.
A single sweetgum leaf against the deep blue sky…play of light and shadow…texture of leaf surface, patterns of veins…..
This time of year, I find tree leaves, particularly those backlit by the late-day sunlight, absolutely entrancing. And this is particularly true of white oaks, whose leaves evoke satellite images of foreign landscapes. Veins form patterns of rivers or roads, patches of lingering green the forest cover. Like maps, the leaf patterns kindle a yearning for exploration, and awaken memories of childhood days outdoors, pretending I was in Middle Earth, or perhaps an imaginary world of my own devising, inspired by Bridge to Terabithia.
I did not notice until returning home from my late-afternoon walk how wonderfully these two leaf portraits go together: still-green white oak leaf against blue sky, fallen brown hickory leaf against the dark earth.
Today the weather along Piney Woods Church Road was mild and pleasant, with a high near 7o degrees and sunshine into the mid-afternoon when high clouds moved in. Tomorrow, though, marks a downward plunge in temperature culminating in our first frost and many days where highs will not rise above the mid-50s. This cold snap will likely bring an end to the autumn pollinating season. Today, though, the air was filled with tiny bees and flies, zooming between the scanty flower blossoms lingering on the goldenrod plants still in bloom along the roadway.
This bedgraggled, spotted, munched, discolored persimmon leaf has weathered the elements and made it to the end of the season. As temperatures drop and winds increase later this week, I expect that this leaf will join the others somewhere along Piney Woods Church Road.
