It looks like it comes from another world, but it is from this one. These are the first leaves of the Douglas-fir. Strictly speaking, they are cotyledons. A cotyledon (kä-tə-ˈlē-dᵊn) is a leaf produced by the embryo of the plant, the one that emerges from the earth already formed and ready to photosynthesize until the first “true leaves” grow. Often, these embryonic leaves come in pairs, or in a whorl, in the case of the Douglas-fir (I’ve never seen the hyphen before, but the Audobon guide uses it).

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