Thursday, June 29, 2023 – While out walking this morning, I noticed an American Basswood tree (a.k.a. “Bee Tree”) in bloom. I took a small branch home to do some nature drawing. The leaves look like lopsided hearts, and the flowers look like bursting stars.

Using the ruler on my magnifying glass, I sketched out the proportional structure of my drawing. I examined my live sample closely from different angles and drew in the details of the bract, flowers and leaves. Then I searched for botanical descriptions of plant details in a couple reference books and added some botany terminology (ie., broadly ovate, palmately veined) to my drawing. The America Basswood tree is a pollinator attracting tree that bee use to produce honey. This is a wonderful tree to use in the overstory layer of a food forest garden.

I am a Nature Drawing instructor, a food forest gardener and an Abundance Ambassador for Food Forest Abundance. Follow my journey through this blog and through the Story Walking Radio Hour.