Fall Color Report | Department of Biology | Appalachian State University posted on September 7
For those of you who still have one day left in your Labor Day Holiday, consider coming up to the mountains on Monday. The weather is spectacular, with low humidity and cool temperatures, and it’s sunny with views that go for miles. Today was a beautiful day, and I was out hiking the Rough Ridge Trail with our new fall color dog, Mila, 8 months old, who is our new family member after the tragic passing of our other dog, Hanna,whom some of you may remember from previous postings. I still have Hanna’s ashes and will disperse them in the woods sometime this fall.
The word of the day is: GREEN. We’re still 3-4 weeks from having really good color show up, and nearly 5 weeks before we get to the peak at around 3,300’ elevation, which is the average elevation if you travel on the Blue Ridge Parkway between Grandfather Mt. and Blowing Rock, NC.
There is some color starting to show up though. Sourwoods are turning a deep red along the roadsides, as are some red and sugar maples, while some birch and cherries are losing their leaves here and there. Tent caterpillars are really abundant this year along the parkway and they especially like cherry trees.
Up at Rough Ridge, the huckleberries and blueberries are just starting to turn red, but it’s very sporadic. However, the Mountain Ash (Sorbus americana) are fruiting now and their very red berries contrast nicely against a vivid, azure sky.
If you’re in to identifying various tree species, you can spend hours doing so in the southern Appalachian Mountains. We have more tree species here than anywhere else in the continental United States. There are over 120 species in the Smokies alone. Contrast that with all of Great Britain, which has only 45 native tree species. All the rest have been imported.
I’ll document some of my favorites in the attached photos from today’s hike. In the coming weeks, I’ll provide some good options for drives to see the leaves and for avoiding large crowds. For example, the Parkway today was very crowded, and when colors peak in October, you could wait for hours to get in to Grandfather Mt. – unless you get their very early, or, go during the middle of the week.
On a positive note weather-wise, the mornings have cooled considerably over the past week, and it has been very sunny. These are the ideal conditions for generating good red colors and having a great fall color season. So, enjoy the rest of your holiday, have a good week, and I’ll be back next weekend with my next report, sans Mila the fall color dog, who it turns out, gets very very car sick. So, until that problem is solved, it will just be me out there. And if anyone knows how to cure a dog of car sickness, please let me know.
If you’re out hiking next weekend, look for my dark green Southern Appalachian Botanical Society Hat and maybe I’ll meet you on the trail! Happy Colors!
Natural History Wanderings 
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