(Resin Birch...?) Leaf Sketch (publ. 2024-07-31)

Yesterday I did a sketch of a leaf from a shrub near the Tanana River:

I think maybe it is a Resin Birch shrub (Betula glandulosa) but I don't feel confident in that identification, due to some differences with what I am reading and seeing on the Internet regarding Betula glandulosa, including the leaf structure. The shrub must be somewhat rare as I was seeing only one shrub for every 100 or so other trees along the path. Anyway, here is a photo of the leaf:

leaf photo

It was not easy trying to capture those interesting double-serrations along the edge of the leaf. Perhaps I should have made the outline of the leaf larger to give myself more space for the pen strokes. But that would have made it harder to keep the leaf proportions correct.

I didn't try to reproduce any of the smaller veins that come off of the main branches. Rather, I just added some lines to try to capture some of the shading as well as the bumps in-between the main veins. Even that was rather challenging.

Copyright

CC BY-SA 4.0 Deed