It isn’t just animals that leave traces of their passing. As the leaves fall in autumn, they leave marks–temporary ones–in mud and in stains. The sidewalks are marked with the tannic traces of fallen oak leaves and pine needles, and rain has collected the dust around the edges of wet leaves on my flagstones, creating mud traces of leaf even after it has dried and blown away.

I like looking at these interesting shapes and trying to guess what left them.

Here we have what is almost certainly the trace of a tulip poplar leaf, those tall trees that have yellow-orange-green flowers in spring. Liriodendron tulipifera, if I’m remembering my high school class in dendrology correctly. (Thanks, Mr. Trott!)

I know we have tulip poplars nearby, so that makes sense. Here’s another.

This one is pretty distinctive: some type of oak, maybe white oak. We have a lot of oak trees around our house, too. I can hear the acorns falling on my neighbors’ metal roofs, and also (only slightly less dramatically) on mine. It’s a nice reminder that fall is here.

I can feel especially confident about this one as there is a redbud (Cercis canadensis) overhanging my new flagstone patio. It was a volunteer that I never took out, and now I’m too attached to its heart-shaped leaves and pink-purple spring flowers to do anything about it. The flowers are edible (though I haven’t tried one for years), but the seeds are not. Don’t eat them!

Here I can only guess. On the right, I think I see another tulip poplar leaf. On the left–is it traces of a hickory leaf, with its various leaflets, or just overlapping traces of some other leaves, maybe wild cherry? I really can’t tell.

These traces are temporary. One good rain will probably erase them. The brown stains on the sidewalks from oak and pine will last longer, but they too will fade eventually. Everything changes, so enjoy the little things while they last.

Till next post.