The Turning Colors of Autumn Leaves

It’s the season of leaf change here in the Northeast. I looked outside on September 23, the first day of fall, and all of our leaves were green, but in a few days they will begin turning.

The oaks are the last to turn. Down the road a bit, the tupelos are already oranging up. The red maples are beginning to color up, red leaves dominating the other colors. The great New England deciduous forests are already a quarter through their turn; Long Island ones have yet to start big time.

What if our only tree was the pitch pine? We wouldn’t know the fall the way we all know it. Too much green is not good for the palate. Those wild colors, last featured by the oaks, take us all the way to November, in some years all the way to December.

What will it be this year? It’s always a guess. As more southern trees and shrubs establish in the north, it becomes a guessing game — what will the fall vegetation be like this year?

And we are not quite through the coastal nor’easter season yet. A large coastal storm may come along and make everything different. It happens in every one year in 10.

Thus far, it doesn’t look like this is the year for a large coastal storm. I think we will escape such a fate this year. Even so, I hate to see the end of summer, and I would very much appreciate a warm winter. But the national weatherman says no, it’s going to be a cold one! Lots of snow and ice!

It was a record warm one throughout the world. We can’t expect to escape frigidity forever, can we?

The South Fork of Long Island offers some wonderful views of the northeastern colorful fall foliage trees. The very early turners, e.g., swamp maples and tupelos, or Elvis Presley trees, are almost done. The late turners, mostly oaks, are just starting.

For example, Swamp Road, in the extreme western part of East Hampton Town, is one of the richest in terms of native tree species. The fall foliage species that are the best seen there right now — every South Fork community has one or two — the red maples, are beginning to show their colors, but in another week the oaks will begin sporting the colors.

Depending upon the temperature and snowfall, the oak fall colors can last well into November.

Ladies and gentlemen, hang on to your hats. Methinks that after all of these early fall rainy days, a clearing will follow, and our roads will sport many, many beautifully colored trees — and they will be that way for several weeks.