In the final weeks of September, a rapid deterioration of all the wildflowers except the goldenrod and asters occurs. And after these last flowers go to seed in early October, there is no new generation of blooming plants to replace them. Except for the few varieties that open during second spring (the warm days in late fall), the final species that grow to maturity within in most of the United States and Canada are in the process of bearing fruit.
The first major tier of trees, including the ashes, cottonwoods, box elders, hickories, and locusts, turns quickly after equinox, reaching its deepest coloration in the second week of October. As this layer of the canopy loses its leaves, the trees of the next tier, especially the maples and oaks, come in for ten to fourteen days; they usually pass their prime just before Halloween.
A second last tier that includes the ginkgoes, sweet gum, and white mulberries can hold out until the first or second week in November. After the first front of late fall brings a hard freeze these trees may come down overnight.
Beech, honeysuckles, boxwood, forsythia and the strongest of the silver maples, Osage, pears, and sycamores keep scattered color in the landscape past Thanksgiving. But when early winter arrives near the 8th of December, it takes the almost all the holdouts.
This is Bill Felker with Poor Will’s Almanack. I’ll be back again next week with notes for the fourth week of early fall. In the meantime, keep track of the trees near your house or apartment. They have a sequence all their own.
