The end of fall

We have been treated to more than two months of fall this year, so I have no complaints about the weather. But this last week marked the end of the color, as we now pass into the drab browns, grays, and soon white that will dominate the landscape until next spring. So, a few parting shots of the end of fall...taken along some of my favorite jogging routes.



An Amur Maple understory (this is an extremely fast-growing introduced maple (from Asia). At least they have very attractive fall foliage.

This mixed deciduous and pine forest was the view across a small stream.

And this was the view of the reflection of those trees in the very still stream water.

Sort of disorienting, isn't it?

And finally, the last tree to light up, even later than the oaks, must be the Norway Maples planted in residential areas. This is probably a horticultural variant of the tree that is native to central and eastern Europe and Asia. I only realized just how popular this tree is in residential gardens when they all simultaneously changed color during the past two weeks.

It has a very wide leaf with smoother and rounder edges than our native maples, and the leaves seem to be a very uniform solid yellow with very little orange or red in them. I assume that means they are full of xanthophyll (yellow) photo pigments which don't show until the chlorophyll has disappeared.

I'll certainly miss my colorful walks in the woods. Time to get out the snowshoes.