Sycamore seed balls and drying leaf

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Two posts back you saw some trunks of sycamore trees, Platanus occidentalis, reflected in Bull Creek on December 3, 2013. Now from the same visit here’s a closer view, upward and unreflected, of the distinctive seed balls this species produces. The drying leaf is a bonus.

If you’d like a retro-bonus, you can go back to a post from two years ago and have a close look at what one of these seed globes looks like when it comes undone. You can also revisit the remnants of a seed ball in a creek alongside a sparkling array of bubbles. And if you really want to make good on the more in sycamore, you can see one of its leaves changing color and rising into a wispy-cloud sky as an emblem of autumn.

© 2014 Steven Schwartzman