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Seeing autumn tints before the peak

2008 October 16

Originally published October 16, 2008
Photo by Ken Moore. Smooth margined leaf of southern sugar maple (bottom) and serrated margined leaf of red maple are sometimes confused with star-shaped leaf of sweetgum.
Photo by Ken Moore. Smooth margined leaf of southern sugar maple (bottom) and serrated margined leaf of red maple are sometimes confused with star-shaped leaf of sweetgum

By Ken Moore

It’s all about taking a closer look. This is the season that folks seek instructions on when and where to view peak color. It’s sad that we place such emphasis on a peak of fall color.

The English describe fall colors as “autumn tints.” I like the notion of “autumn tints.” In a way, it describes the subtle natural progression of colors as plants move from the growing season to the dormancy of winter. Rather than anticipate a sudden turn from summer green to a dazzling peak of color, we can enjoy weeks and weeks observing plants moving slowly through tints of colors that vary from species to species.

Dramatic colors have already begun in our western mountain counties. The burgundy-red tints of the sourwood, Oxydendrum arboreum, are especially appreciated now against the green background of trees only beginning to turn. In two to three short weeks, the mountainsides will be winter bare, the temperature extremes up there moving the season along at a quick pace.

Here in the more leisurely piedmont, we are fortunate to have the autumn tints progress at a slower pace. Some of our sourwoods began to show color some weeks ago and they will continue for weeks more.

As described in Fall Color and Woodland Harvests, a great seasonal companion for nature lovers, by Ritchie Bell and Anne Lindsey, the maples typify fall color for many people. The reds are characteristic of red maple, Acer rubrum. But don’t take them for granted. Many red maples lack an abundance of the red leaf pigments and are predominantly yellow when they turn. In contrast, our southern sugar maples, Acer barbatum, generally turn to shades of yellow, though the one in my yard takes on some indescribable orange-red shades.
Whether colored red or yellow, these two maples can be distinguished by taking a closer look at the leaves. The leaf of the red maple is three to five lobed, the angles between the lobes being sharply acute, and the leaf margins are toothed, serrated. The locally common southern sugar maple is similar to the larger northern sugar maple, which occurs only in our mountain counties but is commonly planted in local landscapes. Like the red maple, leaves of both sugar maples have three to five lobes. They differ in that the angles of the lobes are rounded, not sharply acute, and the leaf margins are entire, i.e., the leaf edges are smooth, lacking serrations.

Sometimes folks will confuse sweetgum, Liquidambar styraciflua, which can carry all shades of yellows and reds, with the maples. The sweet gum has three to five lobes, frequently shaped like a lopsided star. The easiest way to separate the sweetgum from the maples is by taking that closer look at the point of attachment of the leaf petiole to the twig of the tree. Maple leaves are attached opposite one another and the sweetgum leaves alternate along the twig. In our local woods, you frequently find all three growing together. Seeing all three leaves together, as in the accompanying photograph, and remembering opposite and alternate leaf arrangement, makes it easy to recognize the three individual tree species.
Whatever your interest in identifying trees may be, do get outdoors this week and every week into early December to enjoy the lingering parade of autumn tints, which is no finer anywhere than right here at home.

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