I mentioned back in March that I wanted to chronicle spring leaves emerging on our Japanese Maple tree. I was expecting it to take a couple of weeks, but the entire process lasted over a month. The above pictures was taken April 1st, and the buds had not changed much since my Spring Science post from March 23rd.
This picture is from April 5th. The buds are elongated a bit, and you can tell that they are really leaves curled very tightly.
By April 8th, the leaves didn’t really look like buds at all.
April 13th was the next time I had my act together enough to take a picture. The leaves are already beginning to unfurl. This picture reminds me a bit of a butterfly that has just emerged from its chrysalis.
I was expecting the leaves to unfurl suddenly, but they were still mostly closed April 20th.
Things started to happen quickly April 21st, when the leaves opened suddenly to reveal these little seeds. At least I think they are seeds – anybody know for sure?
The seeds (?) were gone by the afternoon of April 22nd!
And the leaves were fully emerged by April 25th.
MaryAnne lives is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
Wow! great idea and beautiful tree!!!
I LOVE this tree – and the photos are educational and a beautiful memory =)
We planted a Japanese Maple last year so this spring will be the first time to watch it bud. I love your pictures. I didn’t know it went through such a process. It should be fun to watch!
I’ve been looking forward to this series of photos, and it’s just as fantastic as I had hoped! Any news on whether those really are seeds? Gorgeous tree!!
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Our maple like this is doing the same thing. Love these pictures and the way you’ve documented the changing of this tree!
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Awesome!!! I loved getting to see the little slideshow of progression! I want to do a project like this–it would make a great writing prompt for my students, especially as we’re working on comparative and descriptive words.
That is so cool to watch them grow!
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So pretty – you take wonderful nature pictures!
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Very cool! Will you and the kids be putting the pictures into a nature notebook of some kind?
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Oh man, what a fun process to get pictures of. I don’t know if I’d remember to get all those pictures.
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Those trees are beautiful! I love the deep reddish leaves.
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How exciting! We used to have a Japanese maple tree at our old house, and I miss it. I looked forward to the leaves budding every year.
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How fun! I saw something on another blog (perhaps playful learning?) awhile ago where they took photos like this and then put them together into a little video/slideshow thing. It was pretty cool.
I love Japanese maples. Happy Spring!
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