Virginia creeper creeps on apace

Click for greater clarity and considerably larger size.

Known as Virginia creeper or five-leaf creeper, Parthenocissus quinquefolia is among the most common vines in central Texas, but in spite of its commonness it’s making its first appearance in these pages today. One of the virtues of this plant in central Texas is that its leaves, each composed of five leaflets radiating from a common point, regularly turn yellow and orange and red in the fall and thereby add welcome autumn color to a region not noted for it. I photographed this spiderwebbed specimen in my neighborhood on November 24.

Virgina creeper creeps across large parts of North America, as you can confirm on the state-clickable USDA map.

For those of you who are interested in photography as a craft, points 1, 3, 6, 7, and 12 in About My Techniques are relevant to this photograph.

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman