--maybe not all the time--but definitely look down every so often as you walk.
Out walking the dogs on the same route I've walked perhaps a hundred times, a single leaf stopped me in my tracks.
It was certainly a maple leaf, and was broad like the commonplace Norway maple, but this leaf was toothed more like a red maple (also commonplace). (If you're curious, you can learn to distinguish these here.) It is also more strongly-veined than either of these.
Only one tree fit the bill--sycamore maple (Acer pseudoplatanus)--an introduced tree. I know it only from the neighborhood where I grew up: it grows on the grounds of the old Aldrich Estate, where I assume it escaped from cultivation. (The one little sycamore maple I could reach there without trespassing died last winter.)
Where is the tree this leaf came from? I'm sure it isn't near the street, or I would have been able to find it. Probably it is in a nearby backyard. I will keep my eye out for others; maybe I will be able to triangulate.
Out walking the dogs on the same route I've walked perhaps a hundred times, a single leaf stopped me in my tracks.
It was certainly a maple leaf, and was broad like the commonplace Norway maple, but this leaf was toothed more like a red maple (also commonplace). (If you're curious, you can learn to distinguish these here.) It is also more strongly-veined than either of these.
Only one tree fit the bill--sycamore maple (Acer pseudoplatanus)--an introduced tree. I know it only from the neighborhood where I grew up: it grows on the grounds of the old Aldrich Estate, where I assume it escaped from cultivation. (The one little sycamore maple I could reach there without trespassing died last winter.)
Where is the tree this leaf came from? I'm sure it isn't near the street, or I would have been able to find it. Probably it is in a nearby backyard. I will keep my eye out for others; maybe I will be able to triangulate.
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