Learn How to Make Leaf Prints

Background

Leaves are a very important and amazing part of plants. Leaves help regulate the temperature of a plant; may help a plant conserve water (e.g. thick waxy cuticle of a Magnolia); may offer a plant protection from predators (e.g. toxins in leaves or the spines of a cactus); and they help a plant convert sunlight into food for the plant to live. There are many parts of leaves and twigs and leaves come in many shapes, sizes and arrangements. Just as we have fingerprints, leaves have distinct shapes and vein patterns that help us identify what plant they belong to. Below are some of the basics that will help you to label the leaf prints and leaf rubbings that you create for your Plant Identification Guide.

Materials Needed To Make A Plant Identification Guide

• Leaves from different trees and plants in your area
  NOTE: It will be better to collect the leaves right before you will use them so that they will not be too dried out to work with. As you collect the leaves be sure to note what plant they are from. You may want to go on a nature walk with a forester or botanist to collect and identify the original leaves you will use for this project.
• A newspaper
• Several sheets of 8 1/2 x 11, 20 lb. weight regular office paper preferably recycled paper torn or cut in half to make 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 sized sheets
• Crayons
• An ink stamp pad (3″ x 5″, 4″ x 6″ or larger)
  NOTE: Try to use colors like green, blue or red (black will work but isn’t as pretty).
• Refill ink for pad
• Scraps of paper or paperboard (like from cereal boxes) cut into the size of the ink stamp pad to be used as “icky cards”
• Pencils and pens to label your leaf prints
• Raffia grass
• A hole puncher
• A tree guide for your area (or look up in a regional guide of leaves in your area)

Making Leaf Rubbings

Leaf rubbings are very fun and easy to make. You may even want to try getting a rubbing of the bark of the plant or tree that you are taking a sample leaf from.

1. Take the leaf and place it vein (bottom) side up on a table.
2. Place your piece of paper over the leaf.
3. Using the side of a peeled crayon, rub the crayon over the paper where the leaf is until the leaf edge, stem and veins appear. You will need to experiment with how hard to rub the crayon over the leaf to get a good print—too light and the features of the leaf may not show up, too hard and the features will be lost in all the crayon wax.



4. Label the leaf print:
   • Write the name of the plant it comes from clearly at the top or bottom of the page.
   • Label the margin (e.g. smooth, lobed, serrate, etc.
   • Label the parts of the leaf if you wish (e.g. tip, base, stem, vein.)
   • Label the type of arrangement of veins and leaf arrangement of the leaf (e.g. opposite venation and alternate simple leaves.)
   • Label any other pertinent features such as whether the plant gets berries or flowers and what time of year, or even what creatures make their homes in the plant (e.g. a Gila Woodpecker in a Saguaro Cactus, or a Great Horned Owl in a Live Oak.)

Making Leaf Prints

Leaf prints are very fun but a little more complex to make.

1. Place a newspaper over the table that you will be working on to protect it from the ink.
2. Place a leaf vein (bottom) side down on your ink stamp pad.
3. Place an “icky card” over the leaf on the ink stamp pad and press down on the “icky card” to ensure that the veins of the leaf get inked.
4. Carefully remove “icky card.” Lift the inked leaf by the stem and place vein (bottom) side down on paper; press gently on leaf with a clean “icky card.”
5. Carefully lift “icky card” and leaf to reveal leaf print.
6. Label the leaf print:
   • Write the name of the plant it comes from clearly at the top or bottom of the page
   • Label the margin (e.g. smooth, lobed, serrate, etc)
   • Label the parts of the leaf if you wish (e.g. tip, base, stem, vein)
   • Label the type of vein pattern and leaf arrangement of the leaf (e.g. opposite venation and alternate simple leaves)
   • Label any other pertinent features such as whether the plant gets berries or flowers and what time of year, or even what creatures make their homes in the plant (e.g. a Gila Woodpecker in a Saguaro Cactus, or a Great Horned Owl in a Live Oak)

Variation

You can make leaf prints with fabric paints on T-Shirts. You will need a paintbrush, fabric paint and a T-shirt to do this.

Carefully place newspaper into a T-shirt so that the paint won’t come through from front to back when you print your shirt. Make sure that you have plenty of newspaper down on the table where you are working.

Paint the vein side of your leaves with fabric paint and carefully arrange them paint side down on your shirt. Press painted leaf on shirt with large “icky card” or a sheet of newspaper.

You can label your leaves with fabric paint or a laundry marker.

Putting Your Plant Identification Guide Together

When you have several pages of leaf rubbings and prints, you are ready to assemble your Plant Identification Guide.

1. Stack your prints together.
2. Punch two hole punches in the side or top of the papers.
3. Finally, tie a piece of raffia grass through the holes to secure the pages in place.

Use your Plant Identification Guide when you go on hikes with friends and family. Add new pages as you encounter new trees and plants!

• For Discussion/Extensions