2nd Week: More Green

It only takes five minutes a day to snap a pretty leaf picture so I’m committed to documenting the trees this fall in my Facebook album, “2011 Fall Trees.” Once a week, I’ll post the pictures on my blog for those of you who aren’t on Facebook. Above, this image from Sept. 30 of one of my street trees, an Armstrong maple, mimics one I took several years ago, when Gregory, and the tree, were still small.

The Aristocrat Pear tree was the subject of a previous photo project in which I documented one bud on the tree for a year. I still love that little slide show, though I’m not sure what happened to the link to it. Hmmmm, must figure that one out. Above, the picture was taken on Oct. 1st, making me wonder if this tree might turn red this year. Probably not. But I like to wonder anyway, always thinking it should turn red, but it never does.

Sunday was Greg’s birthday, so we kidnapped him and took him to Six Flags as a surprise birthday outing. He was so happy! While we were there I was looking desperately for some interesting leaves to photograph for my “2011 Fall Trees” Album. Since I’m committed to posting one picture every day of fall, I couldn’t skip a day, even if it was my son’s birthday. However, after keeping my eyes peeled most of the day, there really weren’t very many interesting things going on in the trees in Jackson. Then I came upon this pretty little Sweetgum tree that even had a little fall color and gumballs too! I was so happy!

The October Glory red maple had not yet begun to show any fall color by Oct. 3 but the purple leaf plum worked nicely as a backdrop to show the leaf structure of the maple. Notice that the branches of red maple trees grow opposite each other, rather than alternating along the branch. That’s one of the things you can use to help identify red maple trees, even in winter. Click here for a cool chart I made several years ago about this tree’s fall color. You might also notice this tree has a touch of anthracnose disease — that’s what those spots on the leaves are

Even though maples can be hard to distinguish from a distance this time of year, if you look closely before the leaf-color-change begins, you’ll clearly see the bright red leaf stems of the red maples. (Sugar maples, by contrast, will have green or yellow leaf stems.) Also, notice how my Red Sunset red maple has already developed NEXT YEAR’S spring buds on Oct. 4. It’s so hopeful! I love red maples!

Grex had told me that they were talking about sassafras trees in science class so imagine my delight when I happened upon this sassafras tree just after sunrise on the morning of “Walk to School Day,” Oct. 5 I was so happy I remembered to grab my camera before we headed out on our 1.5-mile walk!

Royal Red maples emerge bright red in spring. By late summer, they’re so dark red some might call that color “mud.” In fall, they turn a dark bronze color, which is only pretty when viewed at sunrise or sunset and backlit, as shown above on Oct. 6. Otherwise, this tree is downright ugly in fall. Click here for my Tree Grower’s Diary Royal Red maple page, showing the pretty spring colors:

Check back next week for more fall tree pictures, or friend me on Facebook with a note about trees so I can add you to my tree list.