gains and losses

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Yesterday, I showed you a picture of the cluster of leaves growing at the very tip of the twig closest to my living room window.

leaves_pair5_23.jpg

This cluster seems to be growing really strong. It doesn't have any other leaves blocking its sunlight and it doesn't seem to mind a few aphids having an occasional snack. Since I noticed last week that the leaves I'd been measuring seemed to stop growing, I decided to start measuring these leaves instead. I chose to watch the development of the newest and smallest pair. My first measurement was done on May 23rd, when the littlest leaf measured 1 1/2".

leaves_pair5_23_meas.jpg

After some impressive rain storms that night, I awoke the next morning to find that only one half of the leaf pair was still there! Oh no.

leaves_pair5_24.jpg

It may have lost its mate, but that didn't keep it from growing! By the next day, May 25th, it was 1 7/8" long.

leaves_pair_5_25_meas.jpg

That's when the weather got good. Real good. Two more days of sunshine (coupled with well saturated ground from the two weeks of rain we'd had previously) and the leaf grew to 2 1/2" inches by May 27th!

leaves_pair5_27meas.jpg

Whoa! And by May 29th, it was 3" long!

leaves_pair_5_29meas.jpg

Double whoa! It doubled in size in 6 days. I wonder if losing its opposite leaf has had any effect on how quickly it's grown.

Just for good measure, I checked in on the tiny leaf that wouldn't grow. It's still tiny. And lookie, it lost some leaves too.

leaf_tiny5_29.jpg

Down to three.

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About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Alison published on May 30, 2011 9:06 PM.

ash trees are yummy: part 2 was the previous entry in this blog.

stem stuff is the next entry in this blog.

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