Sunprinted Leaf

Check out this leaf ~

It's sunprinted! Seriously. This tree is so interesting. Wherever the sun hits the leaf, it is red, but where it is covered up, it is yellow. I pulled this leaf forward from behind the branch. You can see the branch and the edges of the leaves that were above it.

I did a little research, and as I understand it, the yellows and oranges we see are the natural colors of the leaves, hidden, of course, by chlorophyll until autumn. However, the reds, purples, and browns we see are actually a chemical reaction (the brown is tanin, that's the only one I remember) caused by exposure to sun, and also affected by temperature (that's why cool nights will give more brilliant color). OK, so I'm no scientist, and this is just the best that I can recall from what I read, but apparently this tree has yellow leaves, but where the sun hits them, they turn red. I just thought it was cool.

Here's a look at the tree:

So, while I'm showing you garden photos, here are a couple more that I took the other day...

Here's a toadstool that popped up under one of my banana palms. I thought it was cute...

And here's a look into a new banana palm leaf that's opening up ... too bad I couldn't get a sharp focus on this pic!

Thanks for visiting ... more to come soon, so stop by again. Have a great day!