Zig-zag pod

I really like these silver-back poplar leaves.

This pod was done rather quickly as I was racing against loosing the sun... and lost. The green plant is an "invasive" species new to our area called Japanese Knotweed. It is one of the last plants to bloom in the growing season and has lovely velvety green leaves. I found a big clump of the stuff down by the river and it was already mid afternoon. I could see it was going to be a mad dash to try and get this done before the sun would dip behind the tree-line. I decided to go for it.

I used my ever-helpful Hawthorne thorns to pin the leaves together. I started at the bottom. There is no interior support, just the leaves. By spiraling on the layers it gains strength, but it is still incredibly fragile. I missed the edge of the good sunlight by about 3 minutes... it WAS close!

Now the flowers have gone past their prime and are brown... oh well... there is always next year!