December 1, 2022

Camel’s Foot Leaf
Bozeman, Montana
2022

I was doing some much-needed sorting through of miscellany in my studio a few days ago and came across this leaf (not the photo, but the actual leaf) in a portfolio of photos I took with me on my last trip to China some five years ago but had not opened after bringing it home. I don’t even remember picking up this leaf and saving it while I was in China but I know why I did–because it has a unique (to me anyway) and satisfying shape. As best I can tell it is from a piliostigma thonningii tree. It’s shape has spawned the more easily pronounced common name of camel’s foot tree. The tree is native to Africa but can be, and obviously has been, grown in China and many other parts of the world.