Fives

A recently fallen tree by the stream running along Longmead Road. Zooming in on the (roughly triangular) leaves suggests poplar to me, and there are quite a few poplar trees along the boundary of the industrial estate, just to the east of the stream. This one not very healthy, to judge by the interior of the trunk - plus the fact that it has blown over.

Otherwise the walk was an occasion for pondering about the incidence of fives in the world. Does five rival seven in this regard? A ponder started off by petals, at reference 1, and continued, for example, at reference 2.

The fingers and toes of humans, and quite a lot of other animals come in fives.

The lobed leaves of maples and sycamores commonly have five lobes. As do those of the hawthorn. But in this last case, inspection suggested the lobes forming in pairs by way of the lead lobe splitting into three, giving a sequence of one, three, five and occasionally seven.

Then there are leaves which form in rosettes, for example horse chestnut leaves. But these turned out to be a counter example, with there being a lot of variation, but with seven seeming to be the most common number.

Then there were the spines of the berberis that I have been pruning over the past couple of days; vicious spines which I thought came in rosettes. But inspection on arrival back home proved me wrong, with two or three spines growing at the base of each cluster of leaves: they do stick out, but not a rosette at all, and certainly not a rosette of five.

Last up were the leaves of the araucaria down our own road, but inspection failed to reveal the organising principle. I think I would need to take one apart to work it out and I did not like to break a chunk off someone else's (young) tree - so that one will have to wait.

Work in progress.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/05/abbotsbury.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/05/fives.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/05/poundbury-to-holne.html. Containing a couple of snaps of an araucaria.