September Sunlight

I was struck by the sun shining through brilliant yellow-green leaves the other day when I went for a walk down by the Beaver River.  Even in mid-afternoon by mid-September, the shadows are long and the sun is slanting down from the west.  The result was these beautiful leaves, glowing green in the sun.

The first I came across were these milkweed leaves.  Simple common plant, but the leaves seen against the sunlight are striking, especially as they start turning a little yellow in September.

The leaves of Elecampane are huge.  I posted pictures of the yellow flowers of this plant, which likes low wetter places, a few weeks ago - click here to see them.  They tend to grow in large patches, and are looking rather tattered at this time of year.  But very obvious because they are so large.

And of course the Sugar Maple, caught at the right angle.  In three or four weeks these will be bright orange or red.  In the meantime they're a striking green.

Elm leaves start to look a little tattered by September too, and both the large teeth around the edge and the straight veins out to the edge are very obvious.  The afternoon sun shining through them just lights them up!