Like the neighbor's cat holding onto our railing, many of the maples have decided to hold onto their leaves, at least for a while longer. Not all of them of course, the reds lost their leaves several days ago. The sycamore trees still have some dead leaves hanging onto their branches. Their leaves will remain there for an indefinite period of time. Who knows when? The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind. Many of the oaks will remain filled with brown foliage until spring when they drop the old and bring out the new.
It's interesting to see what foliage falls off first and what begins to turn when. The sugar and silver maples have managed to hang on to their leaves the longest just behind the Bradford pears which have just begun to turn. The dogwoods began turning early and lasted for several weeks before finally succumbing to the blowing breezes of the fall monsoon last week. The sassafras trees also turned early but didn't last nearly as long as the dogwoods. By far the shortest tenure for turning leaves was the ginkgo tree in my parent's yard. The golden colors lasted for only a couple days then tumbled to the earth in a mass of fan shaped leaves.
What foliage is hanging on in your area? What fall color lasted the longest?
Labels: Fall color
