Gargantuan Sycamore, in ghostly light

While exploring the artwork of the Chinese Lantern Festival photo-documented in the previous post, I was struck by the more natural beauty of some of the massive Sycamores, Platanus occidentalis. These trees predate the natural resources park where they grow, and I would imagine also the Ohio State Fairgrounds upon which they are located. I could not resist making a few images of one tree in particular.

Lights from the various lantern displays below cast a strange luminescence on the upper boughs of this huge Sycamore. I would have loved to have created an image of the entire tree, but just below the bottom of the photo, lamp posts, the edge of a building, and other manmade intrusions lurked.

The moon, partially obscured by hazy clouds, framed by the upper limbs of the Sycamore.

Sycamores rank high among our most valuable trees, and I can't believe I've never written about this species, either here, or in my Columbus Dispatch newspaper column. I'll have to do something more detailed about the wonders of this super tree.