This back-lighted close-up of a cottonwood tree leaf skeleton, clearly shows the leaf’s vascular system. (After a leaf falls to the ground, microbes in the soil consume the leaf’s soft tissue and leave only the cellulose and lignin skeleton.)
The leaves I’ve photographed were skeletonized through natural decay, and were hand-picked from thousands of leaves. Here’s how this natural process works. Included are several links that describe how you can artificially skeletonize new leaves by boiling them in alcohol, followed by a soaking in NaOH (Sodium Hydroxide or lye). Here is another technique.
Here are 4 images of the same leaf (whole leaf on black paper, a close up, whole leaf back-lighted, a macro close-up):
This image is FREE to download for your personal use. You can obtain PRINTS or a commercial use license for this image at Royce’s SmugMug site (commercial use licenses start at only $49.95). NOTE: Personal use of Royce’s images requires attribution to his agency (credit ”The Stock Solution Photo Agency”) and a link to this Web site: ”The Stock Solution”.
Image Author / Use License: Royce Bair / Creative Commons license (This image is FREE to download and use for personal use only. You must give credit or attribution to the author. License does NOT include commercial use. Use the SmugMug link above to obtain a commercial use license.)
Download Higher-Res Image (811 x 1024 pixels, 380 KB JPEG) — even higher resolution downloads may be available via the above ”SmugMug” link.
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Additional keywords for this image: stock, photo, photos, photograph, photographs, clip art, clipart, picture, pictures, images, cellulose; cottonwood; cottonwood; tree; leaf; skeleton; leaves; lignin; closeup close; up; nature; network; pattern; patterns; plants; system; texture; tissue; vascular; system; vein; veination; veins; venation; branching; macro; photography
by Royce
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