Escarpment black cherry tree turned yellow
Compared to places much further north, central Texas is too warm for a lot of colorful fall foliage. Still, we do get some, and its predominant color is yellow. That’s true for the escarpment black cherry tree, Prunus serotina var. eximia. We found this specimen at the Doeskin Ranch in Burnet County when we drove out there on November 24th hoping to find some bright autumn leaves. We weren’t disappointed.
© 2018 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
That tree was a beautiful find!
Lavinia Ross
December 2, 2018 at 5:03 PM
It was, and we found other examples of botanical color as well, so the 45-minute drive out to Doeskin Ranch was well worth it.
Steve Schwartzman
December 2, 2018 at 8:13 PM
That is how it is here. Except for poison oak, our native fall color is limited to yellow. Exotic species provide the oranges and reds. I just posted pictures of it on Saturday, and will post more next Saturday.
tonytomeo
December 2, 2018 at 9:57 PM
So your area is similar to ours in that respect. At least this yellow was verging on orange.
Steve Schwartzman
December 3, 2018 at 6:48 AM
Well, our bigleaf maple barely gets blushed with a slight bit of orange. Experts might describe it as ‘gold’.
tonytomeo
December 3, 2018 at 8:58 PM
That’s the adjective the commenter right after you used.
Steve Schwartzman
December 3, 2018 at 9:48 PM
Gads! Does that make it cliche?
tonytomeo
December 3, 2018 at 9:54 PM
Maybe.
Steve Schwartzman
December 3, 2018 at 10:11 PM
Pure gold.
Gallivanta
December 3, 2018 at 4:24 AM
You’ve reminded me that “Nothing gold can stay”:
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/nothing-gold-can-stay
Steve Schwartzman
December 3, 2018 at 6:50 AM
Ah, and thank you for reminding me of Frost’s poem. I am sure, in your archives, you would have photos to illustrate each line of the poem.
Gallivanta
December 3, 2018 at 6:53 AM
I wouldn’t have thought about that but as I went back through the lines just now I found you’re right. You’ve also made me wonder now whether any photographer or painter portrayed Frost with frost around him.
Steve Schwartzman
December 3, 2018 at 7:08 AM
I wonder!
Gallivanta
December 3, 2018 at 7:35 AM
I just did a Google search for “portrait of Robert Frost with frost around him” and none of the results that I looked at seem to show frost.
Steve Schwartzman
December 3, 2018 at 7:41 AM
Eureka! Not quite frost but close enough. I sniffed out this image https://blogs.cofc.edu/modernism/2014/01/30/encounter-in-a-frosted-wood/
I will tell more in another comment so your blog doesn’t think I am spamming you with links.
Gallivanta
December 3, 2018 at 5:14 PM
I did a check on Youtube, where I found this lovely interview https://youtu.be/-1bfTG6Prlw where it seemed to me that that Robert Frost was with two schnauzers. So I went searching for information on Robert Frost’s canine companions. I don’t think he had schnauzers but he did have a lovely dog called Gillie.
Gallivanta
December 3, 2018 at 5:22 PM
And this is Miss Gillie, along with the story of the great sadnesses in Frost’s life http://cambridgecanine.com/2011/10/missgilliefrost/
Gallivanta
December 3, 2018 at 5:24 PM
And from Miss Gillie I found the image I linked to in my first comment.
Gallivanta
December 3, 2018 at 5:24 PM
That’s quite an odyssey you went on. Thanks for all those links. As the Frost interview progressed past the first few minutes, I became more and more convinced I’d seen it once before. Hard to believe that was more than half a century ago. From the other link I learned that in the same year Frost lost his wife to cancer his son committed suicide, and that four of Frost’s six children had died by then. What sadness…
Steve Schwartzman
December 3, 2018 at 8:26 PM
Incredibly sad. I enjoyed listening to him.
Gallivanta
December 3, 2018 at 9:33 PM
Me too.
Steve Schwartzman
December 3, 2018 at 9:49 PM
How beautiful 😊
Nomzi Kumalo
December 3, 2018 at 8:42 AM
And so welcome in a region without a lot of colorful autumnal foliage.
Steve Schwartzman
December 3, 2018 at 9:24 AM
One year, a large cherry tree on the place outside Kerrville went down in a storm. Thanks to a friend with a tractor and a front-loader, we got the tree out of the woods and to a mill to be slabbed. We stacked it under tarps and a lean-to, where it cured for two years before becoming some lovely furniture. The wood was as beautiful as the leaves.
After reading the linked article, I think there’s a chance it might have been escarpment black cherry: every detail seems right, including the fact that it was growing in a place where it got more sunlight than most of the area. Its fruit usually was plentiful, too; the neighbor up the hill sometimes made jelly from it. Whichever cherry it was, it’s a fact that it was one of the few dependable trees for fall color on the place, and you’ve captured that color perfectly.
shoreacres
December 3, 2018 at 8:44 AM
I’ve heard of people using cherry wood to make furniture. Maybe I’ve even seen some. You’ve gone a lot farther, following the process from fallen tree to furniture over a span of at least two years. Then there’s the jelly the neighbor made. And from what you say at the end, you’ve even seen the tree sporting its colorful fall foliage. I’d say you’re much more familiar with this species than I. While we drove to Burnet County to see this specimen, in other years I’ve found a few right in my part of Austin. As you’ve heard me say so may times: I’ll take all the colorful native fall foliage I can get.
Steve Schwartzman
December 3, 2018 at 5:35 PM
Very Nice Steve! Never thought of Central Texas not getting much Fall color!
Reed Andariese
December 4, 2018 at 6:32 PM
Down here we’re way south of your northern New Jersey and my (when growing up) Long Island. The great swathes of forest fall foliage people enjoy up north are lacking here.
Steve Schwartzman
December 4, 2018 at 7:54 PM