Love those Leaves

Passion Flower

 

Ornamental Sweet Potato

Variegated Ivy

All leaves have their own personality, especially the ones from different plants.  The above  three leaves have three or five lobes, but on closer examination are quite different.  The Passion Flower leaf reaches its veins into each of the three lobes and has parallel veins, while the Sweet Potato treats each lobe as part of the larger leaf and does not have parallel veins.  The colors of the Ivy almost obscure the veins in this leaf.

At the expense of not getting too technical in this post, I will describe some leaves and leave the others for you to notice the difference. It's only because of this post that I've started to recall some of my high school biology and look at leaves as individuals again.  It's so easy to see the flowers and forget about the leaves that engender them.

Polka-dot plant

 

Caladium

Some leaves are more spectacular than the flower, as the above two.  The Polka-dot leaf has veins that do not follow the pattern of the pink color, while the Caladium does. The Caladium looks as if its sap ran deep pink in the middle of the leaf.

Australian Tree Fern

Staghorn Fern Frond

 

 Mother Fern Leaflet

 

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The ferns are a world all their own.  Leaflets grow off of the main stem in different shapes and sizes.  The spores on the back of the Mother Fern leaflet can form new ferns.  I love the gentle curve of this leaflet.

Yarrow Leaf

 

Boston Fern Leaf

But even ferns are similar to the leaves themselves, as in the two leaves shown above.  The Yarrow may have a more complex form, but both leaves grow out from a central stem. 

Cranesbill Geranium

 

Kalanchoe

 

Begonia

Plumbago Groundcover in Fall

These leaves show the different colors that leaves can have. The colors in the last two photos show on the leaves in different places, some year-round, some due to their exposure to the sun or the turning of leaves in fall. The succulents have no visible veins.

Mexican Heather

 

Hen and Chickens Succulent

Some leaves form a recognizable form, while others have their on creative chaos.

Forget-me-not

 

 Purple Oxalis

Two of my favorite leaves. Seen close the Forget-me-not has a wonderful contrast of colors.  The various colors and the form of the oxalis speak for themselves.

Caladiums are Cool

    

As the heat wreaks havoc on my blossoms in the August heat, I opted for more caladiums this year for color.  Here they are in reddish color next to my garden griffin statue.  He also protects the garden from bad spirits.  I usually use colors in the red and pink range in this long bed right off my patio.

This one is a cooler color with chartreuse leaf and accents in burgundy.

This one is a pinker shade next to my Tiki statue, bringing good luck from the Pacific islands. 

A little less pink and the cooler of shades of green.  They're related to elephant ears, which always fow so large.  Usually they grow much larger than mine.  But in the dry heat, they stay small, like a miniature caladium.  They love humididy.  When we were groing up in north Texas, my mother always had green and white ones on our front porch to match the color of the house's trim.  Very sheik. And she said they made the porch look cooler.  She's always been an inspirer to my gardens, but I'm much more eclectic and mismatched in my garden style.  At any rate I still think of cool Southern porches when I see caladiums.