Late to the party, but I would tend to come down on the side of the shade being a major factor. Note the leaves grow larger as you move upward. But I don't think it's the only thing. I also notice in the lower right corner, just how green that grass is. I bet your tree has found the lawn fertilizer as well, and that will also result in the larger leaves near the top. High fertilization will make longer thinner growth, and usually larger leaves as well. Some fertilizer is beneficial in many cases, but too much causes it's own problems. Arktrees

Sorry gang, I was checking out multiple forums as usual and just realized I didn't click over to the butterfly formum before posting this, so it ended up here by mistake.

The deer probably has a fawn stashed nearby. Anything that happens near is likely to be chased off. I saw one outright attack a coyote a few years back, obviously preventing it from getting to where it wanted to go. It was intent on one particular spot. Broad daylight, went on for at least 10 minutes. I have one doe who, for the past two previous years, appears to have dropped a fawn in the same location near my apple trees. Once while working out there I looked up to see her looking at me from about 100 feet away, and actually approach me slowly before turning and bounding off, albeit rather slowly. 15 minutes later, I looked up to see that she'd silently returned, and was much, much closer to me this time. I actually approached to see how clos ethat I could get,and was amazed to get to within almost 30 feet. She, or rather a single doe, was seen many times in the next week or so in the same general area, always with much reduced fear compared to their normal behavior here at any other time of year. Presumably, this week or so is giving the fawn enough time to get some growth on it, to be able to move quickly enough to keep up, and then she's gone, with the normal frequency of sightings, and their immediate flight returning. We have seen a single doe lately, but not yet with the reduced fear. Maybe any day now. It's very strange to see that behavior in this area, where they are normally so reserved. Mule dear often habituate to humans, and maybe even white tails in other parts of the county, but it's very unusual for them to behave so tamely in this area, in my experience.

Tomatoes are hardy little buggers! I hope I don't gross anyone out with this... I work for a sewer company and you would not believe some of the places that tomatoes grow and do extremely well! Some really good looking tomatoes but we don't eat them! ;) They grow on top of floating aerators, which is basically a big motor mounted on a float with a propeller that stirs the water. They grow on bar screen rakes, which is even more amazing because the rake travels up and down from 40' to 100' at different sewer plants. They get sun for about ten minutes, then they travel down into the darkness for 5 to 10 minutes at a time.