growth charts

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When we last checked in on our leaf, on May 8th, it measured 1 1/2" long. On the 10th, it was just shy of 1 3/4".

leaves_growth5_10.jpg

On May 12th, it measured just over 1 3/4".

leaves_grow5_!2.jpg

And on May 14th, almost 2".

leaves_grow5_14.jpg

Today, it's just over 2".

leaves_grow5_16.jpg

That's amazingly steady growth -- about 1/8" every two days. But it's slower growth than I noticed last week, which was about 1/8" every day. Wanna see how it's slightly slowing down?

leaf_growth_chart5_16.jpg

Judging from this leaf, I might guess that a leaf's growth slows down as it gets larger, but when we take a look at the large leaf right by my window, we see something different. This big leaf was 4 1/2" long on May 9th.

leaf_grow_lg5_9.jpg

And 5 1/4" on May 12th.

leaf_large5_12.jpg

It grew to 5 3/4" by May 14th.

leaf_grow_lg5_14.jpg

And was 6" long this morning.

leaf_grow_lg5_16.jpg

Wow! Let's see that in a graph!

leaf_growth_lg-_chart5_16.jpg
Again, my measuring system isn't exactly precise, but there's no doubting that the big leaf is getting bigger faster than the smaller leaf. Interestingly, both seemed to slow down in the last few days. You can see the slopes on their graphs aren't as steep from the 14th to the 16th in particular. I wonder if everything on the tree slowed down in the last few days because the weather changed to cool temps, clouds and rain. Look at this awesome graph that I found at timeanddate.com of Boston's weather in the last week ....

recent_weather5_16.jpg

Maybe not the most inspiring weather for growing leaves. Could this have caused that slowdown in leaf growth?

I wonder how a tree deals with long periods of clouds anyway. Doesn't sun mean food? But clouds mean rain, which is also important....

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About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Alison published on May 16, 2011 4:15 PM.

ash leaves are yummy was the previous entry in this blog.

conifers and honey locusts: and now for something completely different is the next entry in this blog.

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