Unbe-leaf-able

No doubt your eyes are drawn to the large, silver-bluish leaf in today’s photo, but there’s a little more to this colourful display. We’re on the floor of a Mexican rainforest to examine a large Cecropia leaf and some lobster claw petals. The genus called Cecropia contains some of the most recognizable neotropical trees anywhere, but the roughly 50 different species can be hard to tell apart. All Cecropias grow fast, by tree standards anyway. On average, they’ll climb about one metre per year and under perfect conditions can grow as much as three metres in that time, eventually reaching around 18 metres tall.
© Gerry Ellis/Minden Pictures