Photographs of the peeling bark of paperbark cherry (or Tibetan cherry or birch cherry) are fairly standard fare for winter articles in gardening magazines and web sites, so I thought I'd create a second, and fanciful, version using a technique similar to yesterday's Orton Imagery for a different take.
The horizontal yellowish blisters are lenticels. These fractures in the cork layer of the bark allow the diffusion of gases (particularly oxygen) into the metabolically active cells beneath the bark surface. For microscopic cross-sections of a lenticel, see here or here – note that these are from much smaller (and longitudinal) lenticels.
For the second image, I used the Calculations command and did a red-red color burn with result on "New Document". With the new black-and-white image (which I also find compelling), I first changed the image mode to greyscale. Then, following the same process as the latter parts of the Orton Imagery technique, I moved the image as a new layer onto the original image, and blended the layers using luminosity at 84%.
Horticulture / landscaping resource link: PlantAmnesty, whose mission is to “end the senseless torture and mutilation of trees and shrubs”.
It only took me a second to add this site to my favorites list at Photoblogs.org!
A wealth of information to be found here, and I certainly will visit often!!
Prunus serrula - Z5 - RHS Index of Garden Plants, Griffiths
Prunus serrula - Z6-8, A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants, Brickell, Cole, Zuk
Thanks Michael. You should know that I was planning on linking to your site as tomorrow's resource link, even before you arrived here!
Why does the bark all peel in one direction?
Anthony - the quick response would be "photographic license", but, since I don't recall it doing otherwise, I wonder if that is indeed the case for the entire length of the trunk. It seems to be doing the same in this photograph as well. I won't have the opportunity to revisit this plant today, though, so I can't confirm or add to the observation until tomorrow.
I forgot to add a story from when I was taking this photograph in the winter garden. This plant is a little off the beaten path, so I was hidden from the view of some people visiting the garden. I overheard one of the visitors say: “You know how you say some food makes your tastebuds do acrobatics? This place does the same to my nose!” If you are a local and get a chance, it is indeed the best time of year to visit the winter garden.
I finally had a look at this – for that particular trunk, the bark peeled back from the northern face. For some other trunks (the plant is multi-stemmed), the bark peeled back from a western face. So, it seems that for this age of trunk, there is a vertical line from which the bark peels back, but it doesn't always occur on any particular face.
Why this is so, I don't know.