Botany Photo of the Day

Alternating veins of wax and chlorophyllic bark suggest this maple is a member of the section Macrantha, or snake bark maples (a section is a grouping of closely-related species within a genus). In this instance, it is indeed a snake bark: Acer tegmentosum, the Manchurian stripebark maple or Manchu striped maple.

Douglas Justice writes in Snake Bark Maples at UBC Botanical Garden (PDF from the Davidsonia):

“The most recognizable feature of the snake barks is their attractive stems. Stem striping is due to waxes that are produced and accumulate in the longitudinal fissures of the expanding bark (Oterdoom & De Jong, 1994). While the most common species exhibit strikingly striped stems, not all species do. To complicate matters, a few maples belonging to other groups have striped bark, particularly in youth; e.g., some forms of A. stachyophyllum (Section Glabra). ... On most species [of snake barks], the most obvious stripes occur on young shoots and gradually disappear as the outer bark becomes increasingly corky on older stems. ... Some stem shading is usually necessary to prolong the life of both bark stripes and the photosynthetic capacity of the stems, although this varies considerably between species and among individuals.”

This particular plant is growing in moderate shade. Photographed here is the main trunk of a twenty year old tree, at approx. 2m from the ground. I chose to retain the natural angle of the trunk for this photograph, instead of adjusting the stripes to be vertical or nearly so like they would normally appear on a trunk perpendicular to the horizon.

Photography resource link: Landscape Photography Composition (part I), an article by Guy Tal for Nature Photographers Online. Know the rules, break the rules.