Eucalypt Leaves, an Ongoing Summer Project?

Eucalypts are the predominant trees in the forested parts of Australia. There are roughly 800 species of these hardwood trees native to the continent. They vary in size from shrubs to the second tallest trees on earth, which are also the largest flowering plant on earth. Eucalypts are evergreen, which accounts for the lack of large areas of dramatic fall colors in Australia's forests. But no plant has permanent leaves. Being evergreen means that leaves shed constantly in small amounts all year long as new leaves emerge. I have noticed the leaves scattered randomly on the trails I frequent, but was surprised when I picked some up for a closer look.

These photographs were constructed by first creating an extremely magnified image of the leaf and then taking a section from it to serve as a background for the normally sized foreground image of the same leaf. Some care was taken to assure that the foreground images appear as they do in nature, with the actual leaf at hand for comparison. The backgrounds are processed to be darker, with less contrast, less sharpness, and less color saturation so the foreground images are not lost against them.

The largest leaves shown in the third image are roughly 210x15mm (18.25x0.5 inches) and the others are roughly 150x40mm (5.9x1.6 inches). Leaves that are considerably larger and smaller are common. The aspect ratio of the longest leaves make it difficult to create a pleasing photograph because there is very little leaf area to magnify for the background.

Eucalypt Leaf #1

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Eucalypt Leaf #2

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Eucalypt Leaf #3

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Eucalypt Leaf #4

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