Natural History Wanderings

Department of Biology | Appalachian State University reports

Still green out there! But! This morning it was 48 F at my house, and probably several degrees colder at the higher elevations on the Blue Ridge Parkway. A cool front has moved in and dropped temperatures substantially, which is good for fall color development. But there hasn’t been much change in the leaves since last week, although a few plants are showing color prominently now, especially up on the ridges near Grandfather Mountain. Today, I hiked the Rough Ridge trail, which is just north of the Linn Cove Viaduct on the Blue Ridge Parkway. If you haven’t done that trail, I highly recommend it. You do have to watch your footing in places, but the dangerous overlooks (at least some of them!) are bounded by a cable and I didn’t get too close to the edges. In my next post, I will put up an album of pictures from today’s walk. So, what’s changing now? In town, the planted red maples, often a horticultural variety that emphasizes their brilliant red fall colors, are really starting to show. These trees first turn red in their upper half, creating a bicolored tree for a while, before the colors move to the lower half. The sourwoods are also changing to red, and of course the dogwoods are already there. On the Rough Ridge trail, the huckleberries are starting to turn deep red, as are some trees that unfortunately, I don’t know what are (help if you can, see the album following this post!). Chestnuts (Aesculus octandra, not American chestnut) are dropping their leaves now, and are always among the first trees to do so each fall. That’s about it for now. With this cool front moving in, I expect to see color changes pick up in the next two weeks. I’ll keep you posted!!