Perhaps of interest to those into #paleobotany — #Liriodendron leaves are smaller in older trees and produce extra lobes. I’d suspect the many fossil relatives of this species could have a similar growth pattern (unless dinosaur predation impacted it in some way!)

https://arboretum.harvard.edu/stories/whats-in-a-leaf/

I wonder why field guides to #trees don’t typically include leaf sizes that young, vigorous specimens can produce. Even in my own yard I was able to find #Liriodendron and #Platanus leaves outside of the putative size range. In contrast, field guides usually give maximum *heights* of trees, data not likely to be of much use in the field.