A detailed, backlighted close-up of a cottonwood tree leaf skeleton. Great image for background design or large print - very high resolution (scanned as a transparency). About leaf skeletons: After a leaf falls to the ground, microbes in the soil consume the leaf's soft tissue and leave only the cellulose and lignin skeleton. The leaf's vascular network can now easily be seen. This leaf was hand-picked and chosen from thousands of not-so-attractive decayed remnants.