Natural History Wanderings

Appalachian State University reports

Colors have started appearing, almost as if someone had slowly turned up the color saturation on the forests, just like you can do with your digital photos or TV, and during the week, they have become gradually more noticeable. Although green is still the dominant color, we are finally seeing the beginnings of the color that attract all of us to the mountains at this time of the year.

However, we won’t see really wide-spread colors until the next weekend. So, if the weather holds as it has for the past week, with mornings getting down into the 40s and highs in the 70s, this should push forward the color development. As it’s been sunny also, that should bring out the red colors too, meaning we could be set up for a really good fall color season after all, despite the unusually warm and dry weather in August and September. For the next 10 days, the forecast is for highs in the 60s, lows in the 50s and then down to the 40s, possibly 30s at the higher elevations. I wish the morning lows were lower, but at least we’re heading toward ideal fall color weather.

The red maples in town continue to color up – the dominant variety colors from the top down, and we have dozens of trees with red tops and green bottoms, and that’s quite striking. The occasional maple and sourwood have started showing up in the woods too, plus birches, tulip poplars, and hickories are yellowing up now. Virginia creeper, a dominant vine in the southern Appalachians, turns a brilliant red color, and it is showing off now in places.

Read more at Appalachian Fall Color

See photos at  https://drive.google.com/…/fol…/0BxpSVO5IUz-EU1lNUHVzZEdtMDA