“Fall” foliage in winter
From my neighborhood on January 4th comes this emblematic leaf of an oak (Quercus spp.).
You could say the composition is minimalist; you’d have trouble making that claim about the color gamut.
Notice how far into the season we were still seeing isolated instances of colorful foliage.
The same outing brought another example, this time from a cedar elm (Ulmus crassifolia).
While yellow is the most common fall color for cedar elms, I also found two leaves that had turned orange.
© 2019 Steven Schwartzman
Advertisements
i love these bits of color at this time of year, brightens the gray days
ksbeth
January 15, 2019 at 4:58 AM
I could use some brightening of the gloom that has hung over Austin yesterday and today.
Steve Schwartzman
January 15, 2019 at 9:31 AM
Red oak happens to be one of those trees that really should be more popular here than it is. For some reason, it does not make too many acorns! I really do not know why. I know that is something that people dislike about it in other regions, but we just do not have a problem with it. Sometimes, I wonder if it is just because there are no old specimens about, and that they will eventually start to make acorns and become a problem, but by that time, they will be too prominent to cut down.
tonytomeo
January 15, 2019 at 7:45 AM
Over the last couple of weeks the Monterrey oak on our front lawn has dropped a mess of acorns along the curb.
Steve Schwartzman
January 15, 2019 at 9:35 AM
Monterrey oak? Is that Monterrey in Texas, and is it spelled with two ‘r’s?
tonytomeo
January 15, 2019 at 9:36 AM
From what I can tell, it’s the Monterrey in Mexico. This species is apparently also called Mexican white oak. The USDA map shows it growing in one Texas border county.
Steve Schwartzman
January 15, 2019 at 12:07 PM
Oh, Quercus polymorpha! I have never heard of it. It does not look like a white oak. It looks more like a Southern live oak.
tonytomeo
January 15, 2019 at 9:37 AM
If you could see the actual tree on my lawn you wouldn’t take it for a live oak.
Steve Schwartzman
January 15, 2019 at 12:12 PM
There are surprisingly few good pictures of it online.
tonytomeo
January 16, 2019 at 12:11 AM
And I’ve never photographed ours because it’s not native. Here’s an article about it from an Austin website:
https://www.austintreeexperts.com/blog/all-about-monterrey-oaks-quercus-polymorpha/
Steve Schwartzman
January 16, 2019 at 5:19 AM
I am not certain if that article makes me like or dislike it. With so many oaks in Texas, I am not certain I would want an exotic in my own garden. I like exotic oaks here only because the natives do not like landscape situations so much.
There happens to be a link to another article about the Mexican sycamore that is becoming more popular in the Los Angeles region. I rather dislike the London plane, but I am not certain that I like the Mexican sycamore any more.
tonytomeo
January 16, 2019 at 9:09 AM
Right. I wouldn’t have planted a Monterrey oak, given that it’s not native within hundreds of miles of here, but the tree was already growing when we moved in in 2004.
Steve Schwartzman
January 16, 2019 at 12:29 PM
That is how I got my sweetgum that was planted in 1959 or so. I really liked that tree. Not many of our native trees work well in landscapes.
tonytomeo
January 16, 2019 at 2:25 PM
Oaks can be so baffling. Our native California black oak is the closest we have to a red oak, but it is really more closely related to a live oak. I don’t know how that works. Our native white oak is known as the valley oak, and it really is grand. For many years, I lived next door to what was purported to be the biggest valley oak in the Santa Clara Valley.
tonytomeo
January 15, 2019 at 9:39 AM
Those are beautiful photos of those leaves!
Lavinia Ross
January 15, 2019 at 10:43 AM
I wanted to leave a good impression, and your comment says I did.
Steve Schwartzman
January 15, 2019 at 1:16 PM
As with most things aging, these have acquired a lot of character to accompany the color.
Steve Gingold
January 15, 2019 at 2:53 PM
May the same be said of us!
Steve Schwartzman
January 15, 2019 at 3:48 PM
Gorgeous beauties 🌿
PlantsandBeyond
January 15, 2019 at 5:54 PM
They made my morning, no question.
Steve Schwartzman
January 15, 2019 at 9:07 PM
It’s like a gift in winter!!
norasphotos4u
January 15, 2019 at 6:02 PM
As are the various stray wildflowers that have been popping up this week.
Steve Schwartzman
January 15, 2019 at 9:09 PM
I very much enjoyed these bursts of color on such a gray day! 🙂
M.B. Henry
January 15, 2019 at 6:03 PM
It’s been gray here, too, so this was a welcome look back to 11 days ago.
Steve Schwartzman
January 15, 2019 at 9:11 PM
These are just lovely shots, Steve. When we contemplated moving to Austin, we were concerned that we would miss fall colors, a favorite here in Upstate NY. I should have listened to my inner self. I don’t regret my decision but I do love Texas!
oneowner
January 15, 2019 at 9:50 PM
I had no idea (or else forgot!) that you once contemplated moving to Austin. Yes, we have isolated bright year-end colors, but you probably would have come to miss the vaster fall foliage of upstate New York. You probably wouldn’t have missed your region’s long, long winters. I heard on the news the other day that Austin’s within-city-limits population might reach one million in the next census; how you’d have liked living in such an increasingly crowded place, I don’t know.
Steve Schwartzman
January 16, 2019 at 5:12 AM
Great studies Steve. These would look great in a living room.
Maria
January 16, 2019 at 12:34 AM
Our living room walls currently display some photographs that I had printed on metal. Maybe it’s time for some more.
Steve Schwartzman
January 16, 2019 at 5:15 AM
I’d love to see how they look in metal. Can that process still be done?
Maria
January 16, 2019 at 7:36 AM
Sure. Many photo labs can make prints on metal. If you do a search for “photographs printed on metal” you’ll get a slew of hits. Even a warehouse chain like Costco offers photos printed on metal:
https://www.costcophotocenter.com/ProductDetails/Metal-Prints
Just be aware that prints cost more on metal than on paper.
Steve Schwartzman
January 16, 2019 at 8:21 AM
Amazing, didn’t know about this service.
Maria
January 16, 2019 at 8:06 PM
I haven’t tried Costco for metal prints yet but I may do a sample or two to see what the quality is like.
Steve Schwartzman
January 16, 2019 at 8:56 PM
Does it add some sheen to the print?
Maria
January 16, 2019 at 8:57 PM
The underlying metal and the (standard) glossy coating make the colors rich. Some labs offer other choices for surfaces, as for example the five at
https://www.meridianpro.com/content/metal-prints/
Steve Schwartzman
January 17, 2019 at 5:48 AM
Thanks for the link. Seems worth the try at least with one of those offers!
Maria
January 19, 2019 at 12:53 AM
I’m just wondering if “sudden oak death” is reaching your end of the country. It seems that we’re anticipating its spread here from California.
Gunta
January 16, 2019 at 2:31 PM
I guess being so close to California you’re unfortunately aware of “sudden oak death,” but until your comment I’d never heard of it. I found information about it at
http://www.suddenoakdeath.org/
What damages oaks in Texas is oak wilt:
https://texasoakwilt.org/oakwilt/
I’ve seen signs in neighborhoods here warning people not to prune their oak trees at certain times of the year.
Steve Schwartzman
January 16, 2019 at 5:03 PM
Thanks for the link. That was one of the best summaries I’ve yet seen.
Gunta
January 16, 2019 at 6:01 PM
Then we’ve both learned.
Steve Schwartzman
January 16, 2019 at 8:54 PM
I’m especially taken with the second photo. Not only are the colors delightful (a true, unblemished orange seems unusual to me), the texture is luscious, and the edge detail is perfect. I’ve been trying to identify some trees that I believe to be elms, and now I know for certain that they aren’t cedar elm. I just can’t get over that texture; I can almost feel its roughness under my fingers.
shoreacres
January 17, 2019 at 8:37 AM
The “crass” in the species name gets it right for cedar elms, whose leaves are rough and stiff. While I don’t know how to tell other elms apart, the texture of cedar elm leaves makes identification easy. As for the orange, it’s not all that common in this species, but it isn’t truly rare, either. What seems unusual is for two leaves to be so almost uniformly orange. Whether they passed through a yellower stage, I don’t know. I notice that the portion of the leaf visible above them has margins that are turning orange, with the color seeming to be spreading to the interior. And speaking of margins, in some of the pictures that I took, the tips of the leaves didn’t stay in focus with the wide aperture I had to use. As long as I got a few sharp images, I was happy.
Steve Schwartzman
January 17, 2019 at 9:05 AM