SugarLeaf

by Ginny Schmidt

Title

SugarLeaf

Artist

Ginny Schmidt

Medium

Photograph - Digital Abstract

Description

The rare and little-known sugar leaf plant grows only in a narrow latitude in the Andes. It exudes a sweet substitute for sugar; when the leaves are brewed and then the water is boiled down until it evaporates, a crystalized residue is left behind. Not commercially viable, this extremely labor-intensive process takes twenty pounds of fresh leaves to yield a teaspoon of the sugar substitute. You can see, however, the beginnings of crystallization in mature leaves on the plant. No, seriously, I'm only kidding - there is no such plant, and this is a picture of the snow bush in my back yard. Thinking of why it is called snow bush, it seems to make as much sense as a made-up story about making sugar from it. The colors in the picture are also a fabrication, as it does not have blue leaves - yellow ones, maybe, when they are dying, and pink - yes, of course, but no blue, at least not usually. The so-called crystallization of some of the leaves is an unfortunate after effect of an excess of photoshopping.

Uploaded

January 4th, 2013

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